Tommorrow Never Dies
by Neo the Magic Swordsman
Summary: With Pietro's death in Genoa, who will be able to save the world when it is threatened by a terrorist organisation?
1. Announcement to the World

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men Evolution, and I am not making any money from writing this story.  
  
Author's Note: This is the third and final installment of Pietro Maximoff and Excalibur, so I hope you enjoy it. I actually know very little about the Louvre security system and I am sure it is much better than it is portrayed in this story.  
  
**

Tommorrow Never Dies

**  
When you were rich it paid to be careful, and Warren Worthington was a very rich man.  
He was driven to work in the morning in a custom-built Mercedes with bulletproof windows and reinforced steel doors. His driver was an inconspicuous looking man in a black suit, who in truth was an ex-Mafia member, armed with a Beretta sub-compact semi-automatic pistol, which he was extremely proficient with. When his car stopped outside Worthington Industries on New York's Fifth Avenue he had merely three steps to walk up before he got to the door, and close circuit television cameras covered every inch of the way. A doorman opened the door for him; he was armed with the same weapon as Warren's driver, as was the receptionist in the foyer.  
Warren Worthington was the head of Worthington Industries, the seventh richest man in the world and he was well known as a self-made millionaire playboy. Warren knew that his success had made him a visible target to any number of people - kidnappers, terrorists… there were plenty of desperate people out there.  
What the public didn't know however, was how Warren had made his millions. After graduating from college, Warren had spent the next decade or so as the head of the criminal empire known as Hydra. Warren had been the founder of the organisation and it had engaged in all kinds of illegal practices - from drug smuggling to contract killings. Eventually Warren had transferred his resources into legitimate enterprises and many of the members of Hydra had given up their lives of crime and followed Warren. Most of his staff were ex-criminals and the majority were from Hydra.  
And so it was that Warren knew one of the most important rules about security - routine is deadly. Get set into a routine and your enemy knows where you are going and when you are going to be there. Warren had taken many precautions to ensure that he didn't end up getting into a routine - he often changed his schedule, worked from home or visited a foreign country to check how Worthington Industries was faring their. He had ensured that he didn't have a favourite restaurant or a specific night that he went to the theatre or the cinema. He had too much experience of how the criminal mind worked to allow himself to slip into a routine.  
Today, Warren was only stopping in at the office - he was going to work at home for the rest of the day, then he had an important meeting in London with some of the shareholders in Worthington Industries. He nodded at the receptionist, then began to climb the long flight of stairs up to the fifteenth floor. Most people would have taken the lift but Warren knew that it was relatively easy to sabotage a lift and make it seem like an accident. Besides, the exercise would do him good.  
Taking a sheaf of papers from the secretary on the fifteenth floor, Warren pulled out his cell phone and dialled a number. "Hello, Mr Chalmers? It's Warren Worthington, I've got the plans for the Jag with me and I was hoping to fax them through to you in about fifteen minutes. Right. That's fine. I'll speak to you later." Warren descended to the entrance and got back into his car, which drove off. Warren didn't bother to glance out of the tinted windows; he was too engrossed with the papers he was reading. It was only when the car stopped that Warren looked up.  
He lived in a luxurious and incredibly expensive New York penthouse, staffed by the most loyal ex-Hydra agents. As he walked through the door his chief of security, Elisabeth Braddock, greeted him. "Good morning, sir. While you were out we had a call from Mr Chalmers." Elisabeth was English, she had been a contract killer in Hydra and she now used her knowledge to ensure the safety of her employer.  
"Thank you Betsy, I've spoken to Mr Chalmers already and I'm going to fax the information he wants to him when I get to my office." Warren and Betsy walked over to the lift that would take Warren up to his office on the top floor. As Warren pushed the button for the lift, Betsy spoke into the headset she wore, communicating with the other security men who were stationed at very points around the building.  
"It's all clear sir." The two entered the lift, where Warren pressed his palm against a small glass panel. A sensor read his fingerprints, and at the same time another sensor scanned his retina. Upon verifying both of them the lift activated and rose to the top floor without stopping.  
Warren's private office was a huge room that occupied most of the top floor and the walls were covered in several of the world's rarest paintings and sculptures. One wall was a floor-to-ceiling window, the glass was bulletproof of course, that offered a spectacular view over New York. There was also a large bookshelf, which contained an odd mixture of modern novels and ancient books on eastern philosophy.  
As soon as Warren stepped out of the lift he could tell something was wrong. So could Betsy apparently, because she drew her Beretta from its concealed holster and raised it to her shoulder, moving to stand in front of Warren. A sudden movement to their right caused them both to turn in that direction and as Warren watched he saw, to his amazement, what appeared to be a shadow detach itself from the wall and leap at them. Betsy snapped off one shot before the shadow collided with her and took her down. The shadow stabbed a syringe into Betsy's neck and she ceased her struggling. Warren took a step back, pulling out his own pistol, as the shadow stood up.  
"You sure do have a tough security system," the shadow said gruffly. Warren was so startled to hear that voice that he almost dropped his gun.  
"I thought you were dead," he said in amazement.  
"So do a lot of other people," the shadow pulled off a voluminous black cloak to reveal a short man with thick dark hair, an unshaven chin and very dark, almost black, hooded eyes.  
"Are you here to kill me, Logan?" Warren asked, surprised at how calm he sounded.  
"Hardly," the Wolverine said. "I need your help." He dropped something at Warren's feet and Warren slowly bent down to pick it up, never once taking his eyes off Logan. Taking a look at what Logan had given him, Warren frowned.  
"Surely you know what this is?" he asked Logan.  
"Yeah, I know what it is. What I want to know is why I found it on a bunch of soldiers who tried to kill me."  
Warren took another look at what Logan had handed him. It was an insignia, cut from a uniform, with nine emerald serpent heads on a black background. It was the symbol of Hydra.  
  
If the security at the Louvre art museum in had been anything like as tight as it was around Warren Worthington's penthouse and office, then the disaster might have been averted. There were security guards, after all the Louvre did house some of the world's most famous art works and it would be a major embarrassment to the French government if something was stolen from the Louvre. However, the surveillance system was getting quite old and hadn't been upgraded for sometime.  
Laurent Duabarre had just finished his shift and was looking forward to getting home. Working at the Louvre wasn't quite as exciting as he'd first hoped it might be, but it did pay the bills. He was just leaving when he spotted something odd. There appeared to be someone standing in one of the hallways that had been closed for redecorating. Sighing in frustration, Laurent walked towards the person hoping it wouldn't be a British tourist. He really didn't want to get into a long argument.  
"Excusez moi, monsieur." The man didn't make a move. "Excuse me, sir!" Laurent repeated in a firmer tone, wondering if the man didn't speak French. The figure turned around this time and it took Laurent's brain several seconds to realise that the man was holding a pistol fitted with a silencer. Unfortunately by the time he had realised this he was dead.  
The man caught the security guard before he hit the floor and quickly dragged him out of sight. As he did so he pulled what looked like a television remote out of his pocket and pressed a button. The loop he had set to play on the security camera would now stop, allowing the security guards to see what was actually happening in the corridor. Unfortunately, it was too late for them.  
Several seconds later a man wearing a security guard's uniform walked down the off limits hallway. No one thought to ask him where he was going and so it was that he was able to get to the most modern art gallery without interruption. Once there he walked through the gallery, until he accidentally tripped over a tourist's foot and stumbled into the wall. Apologising profusely in fluent French he continued on his way, no one realising that when he had hit the wall he had attached a small explosive device. He placed three more explosive devices around the gallery before leaving.  
As the security guard left the building he passed a tall man in an expensive but anonymous black suit, carrying a briefcase. The man nodded in greeting to the security guard before heading to the largest gallery in the Louvre. There he put his briefcase down next to him as he gazed up at a painting by a fourteenth century artist. Exactly sixty seconds later he was out of the Louvre.  
When the detonator was pressed one of the security guards had noticed the briefcase and was just about to alert his superiors. At that point however an explosive device went off, which had so much power that it tore through the museum, igniting the explosives in the modern gallery as well. Tourists in the square around the Louvre screamed in terror as they watched the massive explosion tear through the famous art gallery. Countless hundreds of people, tourists, security guards and other employees at the museum were killed in the blast, and the debris from the blast injured hundreds who were in the vicinity.  
  
In a metallic chamber many thousands of miles away from Paris, a group of people were clustered around a television monitor. On it they could see a slightly hazy image of the Louvre and the devastation caused by the explosion.  
"It seems that Gemini has been a success."  
"This is only a preliminary test, do not get too overconfident yet. All this will do is grab the world's attention. I want a full medical and physical assessment when Gemini returns, understood."  
"Of course madam director, though I really don't see the point. Gemini…"  
"Is still in the final stages of testing. If something is wrong we need to find it out now, rather than when we begin our operation. Is that clear?"  
"Yes madam director."  
  



	2. The Killing Fields of Paris

**

Chapter II

**  
"I thought you closed down Hydra seven years ago," Logan said, looking pointedly at the emblem Warren had clutched in his hand.  
"So did I," Warren said shortly. "Where did you say you got this?" He moved to his desk and sank into the high-backed leather chair behind it.  
"I was doing a job up in Finland - a retrieval mission. When I got to the drop off point they tried to kill me instead of paying me. I found this on the uniforms of the dead soldiers."  
Warren shook his head. "I haven't had anything to do with Hydra for the past seven years, though there were some people who didn't transfer across to legitimate enterprises. Could be the people who attacked you were just a group of old Hydra members who kept their uniforms."  
"Don't you have any contacts who can find out if Hydra's still active anywhere? No one I know has heard anything about them. Either they're hiding themselves extremely well or, as you said, it could just be coincidence."  
Warren paused for thought before answering. "I do know someone who can probably tell you what you need to know. He lives in Paris though, and only does business face-to-face."  
"Tell me where to find him." Logan demanded.  
"I'm coming with you," Warren said, standing up. "If Hydra is involved, then I want to find out who has taken over my organisation."  
Logan looked like he was going to argue but then thought better of it. "Fine. When can we leave?"  
"We'll take my private jet. We should be leaving in about an hour and a half." As Warren spoke, Betsy's eyes opened slowly and she put a hand to her forehead before dragging herself up. Warren moved to her side to assist her and soon she was face-to-face with Logan. She stared at him for a second before going to retrieve her gun. Warren meanwhile had told his secretary to organize his private jet to be ready for takeoff and had called the lift. "Let's go," he said as the lift arrived. Logan and Betsy took one final look at each other before brushing past Warren into the lift. Smiling slightly, Warren followed them.  
  
The news of the bombing in Paris had reached London mere minutes after it had occurred and so it was that Charles Xavier found himself studying a report of the bombing approximately twenty minutes after it had occurred. The first thing that struck Charles as he read was the fact that the security at the Louvre had been dangerously lax, it had been far too easy for the bombers to enter and plant their explosives. As he continued reading the report it jogged something in the back of his memory.  
There had been two other incidents like this, albeit on a smaller scale, in the past month. One had been the bombing of a small art gallery in Scotland, the other the bombing of a mansion in Australia. Both incidents had been small - only a handful people had been injured and one person had died. Yet they had been conducted in a similar manner, and Charles Xavier didn't believe in coincidence. You didn't get to his position by believing in coincidence.  
Pressing the intercom button on his desk Xavier asked Jean Grey to send Lance Alvers up to see him. He would have liked to put Pietro Maximoff on this case, but he had been killed two months ago in that terrible incident in Genoa. It had taken him a long time to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D. after that event - Charles was not impressed by the way that they had handled the situation, but he could see what their thinking had been. But it had resulted in his best operative being killed, so now he would have to use Lance.  
Not that Lance was a bad operative; on the contrary he had an excellent service record and had distinguished himself on many occasions. It was just that he was taking Pietro's death very hard, he blamed himself for not being able to save his friend, and he had been working almost non-stop since then. Charles would have liked to give him some time off, but right now they had a shortage of available operatives due to the World Environmental Summit in Kyoto - Excalibur had provided almost half its agents to provide security - so Charles needed Lance.  
  
Warren Worthington's private jet touched down at Charles de Gaulle airport at nine-thirty p.m. Warren had brought Betsy and another security guard, a tall man named Ray Sparks, with him and he swiftly led Logan through the airport terminal and out into the streets of Paris. Even at the late time the city still thronged with life and the streets were crowded. Betsy and Ray stood on either side of Warren, their eyes constantly scanning the crowds for any sign of danger.  
"So Warren, where's your contact?" Logan asked as they entered a small cul-de-sac off the main streets.  
"He lives just down here." Warren pointed to a rickety looking building made of wood, which looked almost derelict. Logan could just detect light leaking out from under the door and hear the sound of quiet voices inside.  
"He's got company," Logan whispered as they approached the building. "Does he normally work this late?" As he spoke, Betsy shot him an annoyed look that he ignored.  
"Normally no, but he makes exceptions for old friends." Warren smiled as if at some private joke as he said this, when they heard a shout from inside and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. Warren turned and looked at his bodyguards who nodded back to him. Logan pulled a curved, long-bladed knife from his boot and drew his katana from its scabbard that was strapped to his back. With all his experience it had been simple for him to get the weapons through the security checks at the airport.  
Warren moved aside and Ray pushed the door open, gun in his hand. The room they entered was as battered and old as the front of the building - it contained an old, stained wooden table, a chair with only three legs and a pile of smashed crockery. It also contained three men in familiar black uniforms - two of them holding a man up by his arms, whilst the third knelt down in front of him. The man the two were holding was short, with a pockmarked face and dirty brown hair that was cut in a haphazard fashion, as if the man had tried to cut his hair himself. His face was covered in his own blood, as were his clothes.  
Seeing the new arrivals the men dropped their prisoner. The soldier who had been kneeling down in front of him was in the process of drawing his weapon when he was hurled back by two shots from Betsy's gun. Seeing their leader go down in front of their eyes the other two men fumbled for their guns but Ray shot one and Logan leapt on the other, easily disarming him. Warren walked over to the struggling soldier and looked down at him. The Hydra insignia was emblazoned on his shoulder.  
Warren was about to speak when Betsy tackled him to the floor. Bullets suddenly ripped through the front wall of the house, punching holes in the wooden walls. Logan and Ray managed to shelter behind the upturned table, but the contact they had come to see wasn't so lucky. He had barely got to his feet when he jerked and spasmed before collapsing, blood pooling around his body. Angered, Logan was about to get out of his hiding place and make a dash for the machine gunner, he could probably take care of them before they realised where he was, when the gun fell silent. A tinny sound, like someone dropping a can on the floor, suddenly reached Logan's ears. He covered his head and crouched down behind the table when the grenade suddenly exploded.  
Luckily it was a tear gas grenade and not a fragmentation grenade, which could well have killed everyone in the room. A thick white cloud filled the room and Logan could hear the others coughing as they inhaled the gas. Logan knew that the only way to get out of the tear gas's area of effect was out the front door, which was where the machine gun would be waiting for them.  
Eyes watering, Logan got unsteadily to his feet and slowly made his way towards the door, before practically walking into a black clad soldier wearing a gas mask. The soldier seemed as startled to see Logan, as Logan was to see him, presumably he'd expected everyone inside to be paralysed by the tear gas. Logan however, had built up quite a strong resistance to tear gas, after being subjected to it many times but by now it was starting to take effect on him. He swiftly punched his knife into the soldier's chest then ripped off his gas mask and put it over his own face.  
The oxygen that Logan breathed in helped to clear his head significantly, but he couldn't do anything to clear his eyes. Logan picked the soldier's weapon up - a powerful Remington M32 shotgun, deadly at close range and ideal for situations such as this - and made his way through the gas. Glancing outside, Logan could see where the machine gun was - across the street set up behind a makeshift metal barricade. The shotgun was too far out of range to be of any use, but as one of the gunners stood up to take a look at the building, Logan threw his knife with unerring accuracy and the man toppled backwards with the knife embedded in his forehead.  
There was a smattering of return fire as he sprinted towards the machine gun but the machine gun didn't fire - the operator must have been too shocked by his comrade's death. As Logan leapt over the barricade he fired his shotgun, hurling the other machine gunner several feet backwards. Two other soldiers charged at him, firing wildly from the hip, but one blast from the shotgun brought them both down. One of them was dead, the other in agony after having taken a direct hit to his stomach. Logan couldn't leave him to slowly bleed to death, so he swiftly cut his throat.  
Breathing heavily Logan suddenly realised that all the firing had stopped and looked around. Ray and Betsy were emerging from the wooden house, dragging a soldier with them, Warren trailing after them. All three were still coughing and their eyes were watering, but apart from that they were fine.  
Logan went over to join them, pulling off his gas mask as he did so. Betsy and Ray dropped the soldier on the floor and pulled off his gas mask. Logan saw that he was young and looked very scared - his blue eyes darted to each person in turn and his brow was covered in sweat.  
"I believe that you are wearing the insignia of my organisation," Warren said quietly. "You are going to tell me everything you know about Hydra."   
  
"Madam director, the results of the medical and physical examinations are here." The director took them and scanned them quickly, her lips twisting into a cruel smile that made a shiver of fear run up the doctor's spine.  
"Excellent. I am most pleased with your work."  
"Thank you madam director, you are too kind," the doctor said, unable to hide the nervous tremor in his voice. The smile on the director's face widened.  
"There were no adverse effects?" she pressed.  
"No visible ones. However, his brain waves did seem to have quite an erratic pattern. Nothing to be worried about, although this may become a problem in the future."  
"How much of a problem?"  
"Nothing that we cannot handle, I have been assured. And we have ascertained that the likelihood of anything adverse occuring is almost zero. This is most likely just a side effect of the operation. He'll be used to it in a few days, and his brain waves should return to normal."  
"Excellent. It is time to implement phase two of our plan."  
  
Thank you for your kind reviews DaemonRogue 13 and Karakin - you're going to have to wait a couple more chapters to find out what's happened to Pietro. 


	3. Death of an Innocent

**

Chapter III

**  
  
Logan, Warren, Betsy and Ray gathered at Warren's apartment in Paris, bringing the Hydra soldier with them. He had been quick to tell Warren everything he knew about Hydra, but as Logan had expected he actually knew very little. He couldn't tell them who was the leader of Hydra, nor could he tell them what Hydra was planning to do. All he knew was that he and his fellow soldiers had been given orders to kill the informant in Paris. And the vital bit of information Logan had been looking for - where Hydra's base was. The soldier had told them that he had been stationed in northern Russia - close to the port town of Murmansk.  
  
Logan knew quite a bit about Murmansk; he had been there a couple of times in his life. It was the largest city above the Artic Circle in the world, it had a population of over four hundred and fifty thousand, and it was a major fishing port in Russia - one of the most important ones since it was never closed by ice due to warm ocean currents extending from the North Atlantic Drift, which kept it open all year round.  
  
Now that Logan had a location of where exactly Hydra was based, he was ready to hunt them down and exact his revenge for their attempted double-crossing. Whilst Warren, Betsy and Ray sat around the coffee table conversing, Logan was stowing the gear he would need in a bag. Murmansk would be cold at this time of year - about minus ten degrees Celsius, he was expecting.  
  
"Hey Warren, thanks for your help." He didn't bother to look at Warren as he said this; instead he just concentrated on packing.  
  
"I have to say, you sparked my curiosity as to who had resurrected my organisation. So when do we leave for Murmansk?"  
  
Logan turned to face him when he said this. "I didn't mind you coming to help me in Paris, but you're not coming to Murmansk with me."  
  
"You can't just give orders to us," Betsy said heatedly, but Warren placed a calming hand on her shoulder.  
  
"I still have no idea as to the identity of my successor. If Murmansk will lead me to the answers, then Murmansk is where I will go."  
  
"I work better alone," Logan growled angrily.  
  
"You intend to take on the whole of Hydra by yourself?" Warren smiled as he said this.  
  
"They've got sloppy. In the old days that kind of mess earlier would never have happened. I can take care of myself."  
  
"I'm coming with you Logan, whether you want me to or not. With us with you, you'll have a better chance of survival."  
  
Logan and Warren stared at each other for a several long seconds, before Logan looked away. "Fine, but I'm not looking out for you," he spat before stalking off into a bedroom.  
  
"I believe we should all follow Logan's example, it'll be a hard day tomorrow and we need all the sleep we can get."  
  
"I'll take the first watch," Betsy volunteered. "I'll come and wake you up later Ray." He nodded in agreement and went to his room, leaving Warren and Betsy alone together.  
  
"Betsy, I know you have a history with Logan but perhaps you could put aside your feelings, for the good of this mission?"  
  
"He's nothing but a filthy animal!" Betsy spat, and Warren was shocked by the pure hatred he detected in his bodyguard's voice.  
  
"He's also the best chance we have of getting out of Hydra's base alive," Warren reminded her, "so if you could try and reconcile your differences for this mission it would be very helpful."  
  
"I'll try, but I'm not making any promises." Betsy turned to face Warren, suddenly very earnest. "I don't trust him. He knows something more about Hydra, something that he's not telling us."  
  
"I got that impression too, but we can't force him to tell us anything. For now we'll just have to trust him…"  
  
"We could be walking into a trap!"  
  
"No. He was sincere when he said he wanted revenge on Hydra. He is not going to betray us."  
  
Unbeknownst to Warren and Betsy, Logan was listening to their conversation - his door opened a fraction of an inch. As he heard Betsy talk, he smiled - she had always been a smart girl. And she was right; Logan did know something he wasn't telling them. But it was a trivial matter really, or so he thought. Although, if Hydra were willing to silence him over it, how trivial was it really?

* * *

Lance Alvers stared at the devastation caused by the Louvre bombing and shook his head angrily. So many lives had been cruelly cut short and for what? A display of anger on a global scale? It made Lance feel sick.  
  
It also reminded him of the recent death of his best friend and fellow Excalibur agent, Pietro Maximoff. He had died senselessly as well, but what made it even worse was that Lance knew he could have saved him and he failed to do so.  
  
Lance's train of thought was cut short when his fellow Excalibur operative, Forge, approached him. Forge had taken over from Hank McCoy as Excalibur's resident gadgeteer when Hank had been killed in Tokyo. However, Forge was also a capable field agent and often accompanied other agents into the field.  
  
"Found anything interesting?"  
  
"Nothing," Lance sighed. "The people who did this were smart, they didn't leave any traces. Real professionals.  
"How about you, did you get anything from the security systems?"  
  
Forge pondered his answer for a few moments. "Nothing major," he said slowly. "Only, one of the cameras did pick up something. It's very blurry mind you, and I had to use one of my devices to magnify and clear it up but… well here it is." Forge handed Lance a still from a CCTV film.  
  
Lance studied the still for a long time before speaking. "That's impossible. You know it's impossible, don't you?"  
  
"I didn't suggest anything," Forge protested his innocence. "I'm just showing you what I saw."  
  
Lance shook his head and handed the still back. "We've got to get back to London and show that to Xavier. Maybe he can make some sense of it."

* * *

Phase two of Hydra's plans was being delayed, and the director despised delays. A rich businessman - Sergei Ulmanov - was demanding an extra two million US dollars for his silence, and the director was sick and tired of his demands. Therefore she had dispatched one of her agents to send him a message.  
  
Normally a veteran Hydra agent would have been dispatched to do this, but the agent assigned to this mission was on his first mission ever. The agent was at the moment entering a carnival close to Kandalaksha. He was clad in a crisp dark grey suit with tinted glasses, although he was wearing green contact lenses to disguise his true identity. His dark brown hair was brushed in a severe side parting, but there was a rogue strand that constantly fell into his face and he constantly brushed away. In his right hand he carried a black leather briefcase.  
  
The carnival was quite large - there were several large marquees, a tall multi-coloured Ferris wheel and in the centre was the tall tower, dating back from world war two, that the carnival was built around. The tower had been updated to make it modernised and now the agent stepped into the lift, which would take him to the very top of the tower - almost fifty metres above the ground.  
  
On the top floor several thickset men in dark suits stood at strategic positions. The agent knew why there was such heavy security - the young daughter of Mr Ulmanov was going to be giving a recital in about ten minutes and the businessman was taking no chances. The agent walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked out at the rudimentary stage that had been set up for the recital. He could see people scurrying around like ants and after several minutes, he saw the limousine pull up. Two bodyguards got out, followed by Mr Ulmanov's daughter.  
  
The agent stayed staring at the ground, until the guard standing next to him moved off, presumably to talk to one of his companions. Instantly the agent strode over to the door labelled 'No Entry', silently opened it and slipped through it. The door led to a flight of stairs that would lead to the roof of the tower. The agent ran up them and upon reaching the tower's roof, opened his briefcase. He swiftly constructed the Barret M107 sniper rifle that had been hidden in his briefcase.  
  
He set the tripod up on the edge of the tower roof, then lay down and sighted the barrel towards the stage. Peering through the scope, he could see what was going on onstage as if he was there himself. When Mr Ulmanov's daughter reached centre stage, the agent reached into a pocket and pulled his mobile phone from his pocket. He firmly pressed the 9 key and the Ferris wheel suddenly ground to a juddering halt.  
  
There was a lot of screaming and bodyguards sprinted towards the motionless Ferris wheel, believing that an attack would be coming from there. Meanwhile the agent calmly sighted down the scope, stopped breathing and pulled the trigger. As soon as he had done so he stood up, folding the sniper rifle up and returning it to its hiding place. He didn't look to see if his bullet had hit the target. He didn't have to.  
  
As soon as the bodyguards heard the shot from the tower, they changed direction and sprinted for the tower. However the sound of helicopter blades made them look up. A sleek black helicopter flew over the tower and lowered a line to the agent, who grabbed hold of it and was pulled up just as the first bodyguard got onto the tower roof.  
  
As the helicopter flew away the agent stared down at the podium, where he could just make out the form of his target, lying motionless on the floor. The .50 calibre bullet would have entered the right side of her forehead and emerged just to the left of the top of her spine, killing her instantly.  
  
Pulling off his wig, and removing the tinted glasses and contact lenses Pietro Maximoff allowed himself a slight smile. He'd forgotten how good it truly felt to be conducting business.  
  
Thank you for your reviews DemonRogue 13 and Karakin, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. 


	4. Showdown on the Train

**

Chapter IV

**  
Lance was waiting in the briefing room when Forge came in, a file in his hand. "I've just spoken to Xavier," he dropped the file on the table. "An assassination in Russia," Forge gestured to the file.  
  
Lance picked it up and flicked through it. It was a standard assassination, probably something to do with a criminal organisation. The daughter of a businessman had been assassinated by a sniper, nothing that unusual about that. Except that Russian intelligence had identified the sniper as one of the people who had planted the bombs at the Louvre. Lance dropped the file and looked at Forge. "What about the still?"  
  
Forge looked uncomfortable when Lance asked this. "Look Lance, I know you're not going to like it but there's no other explanation."  
  
Lance shook his head. "Have you told Xavier?"  
  
"Yes." Forge said reluctantly.  
  
"And?"  
  
"He agreed with me. He wants to see you." Lance stood up and brushed past Forge without saying a word. Forge watched him go before sinking into a chair. He could understand Lance's annoyance, but he was going to have to face the facts that were there, even if they made no sense. And that was what troubled Forge the most, the fact that the evidence was utterly illogical. Forge had based his whole life on the logic of science, and being confronted by something so utterly illogical had come as a shock to him, to say the least.  
  
Lance sat down opposite Xavier and opened his mouth to speak, but Xavier held up a hand to silence him. "Lance, I know that this must have come as a shock to you, but this is not conclusive evidence, which is why I need you to go to Russia to investigate." Lance nodded, so Xavier continued. "I have compiled a dossier on the assassination and bombing incidents, but we really don't have a lot of information on the organisation that has been carrying out these attacks." Xavier handed Lance a dossier. "You're plane ticket is in there as well. You leave in four hours."  
  
Lance stood up and made to leave, but paused when he reached the door. "Sir, I know that the evidence shows Pietro as being one of the people who bombed the Louvre, but I really don't believe that he could have done."  
  
"Neither do I Lance," Xavier confessed, "so it's up to you to find out what is really going on." Lance nodded and left.  
  
Logan looked around St Petersburg, and a slight smile crept across his face. He had always liked working in Russia, and he had visited St Petersburg many times before on business trips. He was standing with Ray outside the St Petersburg train station, whilst Warren and Betsy purchased four tickets to Murmansk.  
  
Logan reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a cigar, which he put in his mouth and lit with a lighter he pulled from the same pocket. He inhaled deeply, before blowing a cloud of thick, acrid smoke from his nostrils. Taking the cigar from his mouth he turned to face Ray. "How long have you been working for Worthington?"  
  
Ray was silent for several seconds, before replying, "five years."  
  
Logan nodded. "You ever been to Murmansk before?" Ray shook his head. "Beautiful city, gets real cold though." A tall man in a black greatcoat, wearing dark sunglasses suddenly grabbed Logan's attention. It was not just his outlandish attire that made Logan notice him; it was the fact that he looked so similar to the director of Hydra on that night in Finland. It could just be a coincidence, but Logan kept his eye on him as he moved across the terminal to look at a board of train departure times.  
  
"We've got the tickets." Logan turned to see Warren and Betsy standing behind him, a wad of tickets in their hands.  
  
"What time does the train leave?" Logan glanced back to where the man in the greatcoat had been, but he had seemingly vanished.  
  
"Fifteen minutes," Warren answered, checking the details on the tickets. "We'd better get onboard." The four went to platform two and boarded the train – it was a large train, divided up into separate compartments with six seats in each one, and a small aisle that ran down the length of every carriage to allow people to move through the train. They settled in a compartment near the front of the train, and as Ray, Betsy and Warren sat down and prepared for the several hours long train ride, Logan got up and wandered down the carriages, glancing at the occupants of the compartments.  
  
Looking at the platform Logan thought he caught a glimpse of the man in the black greatcoat, but when if he did it was only very fleeting. As he walked down the third carriage he noticed that several compartments were filled with men wearing similar looking black uniforms. They didn't have any insignia, so they could have belonged to any number of government and criminal organisations, but Logan had a bad feeling he knew exactly which organisation they belonged to.  
  
Walking back to his compartment, Logan saw the man in the black greatcoat boarding the train and he ducked into a small alcove in the connection between two carriages. He couldn't be sure, but it seemed like Hydra knew they were coming for them, and they were taking precautions to ensure that they never reached their final destination. Logan hurried back to the compartment and swiftly told the others about what he'd just seen.  
  
"It seems more than likely that your assumptions are correct and Hydra knows that we're going to their base and intends to stop us." Warren agreed.  
  
"But the real question is how do they know where we are?" Betsy asked, looking pointedly at Logan, who sneered at her.  
  
"If you want to accuse me of being a traitor, then why don't you just say it?" he said challengingly.  
  
"I just think it's all very convenient – Hydra got to the informant in Paris first and since we found out where their base is anyway, they just happen to turn up on the same train as us."  
  
"Stop this at once!" Warren said angrily as Logan prepared to answer Betsy's challenge. "We cannot afford to start fighting among ourselves. If we are going to reach Murmansk we are going to have to work together, is that clear?" Logan and Betsy grudgingly acknowledged the truth of Warren's statement. "Good. Now, since there are Hydra soldiers on the train, I think it's fair to assume that they intend to kill us before we get to Murmansk. Therefore, we need to be ready to for an attack at any time."  
  
"I'm going to go and take another look at the soldiers down the train," Logan said. "Maybe I can stop some of them from getting to you."  
  
"Very well. We'll get ready to fend off an attack when it comes." Logan slid the compartment door open and stepped out into the carriage, Betsy's stare burning into the back of his head.  
  
As he was passing over the connection between the second and third carriages, Logan suddenly realised something was wrong. A split-second before the gun went off Logan threw himself to the floor, then lunged at his attacker. His attacker dropped the gun and grappled with him, and Logan was amazed to find that the man was as strong as he was and as fast. The man grabbed Logan's wrists and slammed him into the opposite wall, driving all the breath from Logan's body.  
  
He slammed his fist down, aiming at Logan's head and Logan suddenly realised that he had a blade attached to his wrist. He rolled to one side and the blade punched through the floor. Lashing out with his feet, Logan staggered his attacker and then capitalised on the opening by slamming his attacker's head into the door. Unknowingly, Logan hit the button to open the door and when since they were both leaning on the door, Logan and his attacker were thrown out of the train when the door suddenly burst open.  
  
Logan automatically grabbed at the nearest thing possible – in this case his assailant's foot – and suddenly felt himself jerk to a sudden halt. His assailant had plunged his blade into the side of the train, and was pulling himself onto the roof when he felt Logan hanging onto him. The man lashed out with his foot, catching Logan on the collarbone, but Logan refused to let go. Annoyed the man pulled himself up onto the rood on the train and as Logan tried to do the same he lunged with his blade at Logan's face.  
  
Logan grabbed the man's arm, dodging the blade once again, and pulled himself onto the roof, almost pulling his assailant off at the same time. Only when he was on the roof did he realise that his attacker was the man he had seen earlier in the black greatcoat, only without the sunglasses now.  
  
"Well done Wolverine," the man spoke in heavily Russian-accented English.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" Logan shouted over the sound of the wind that rushed past them.  
  
The man smiled. "You don't remember me? Well, I remember you all too well. Does the name Omega Red mean anything to you?"  
  
"Omega Red?" Logan repeated slowly. "Vaguely reminds me of something, weren't you at Kursk?"  
  
"Very good. Do you remember that I vowed that I would kill you."  
  
"Yeah I remember you. Weren't you lying on the floor, dying of blood loss when I last saw you?" Logan grinned.  
  
"Laugh all you like Wolverine, I am going to kill you now."  
  
"Just bring it on, bub."  
  
"What do the results look like after Gemini's first field operation?" the director asked.  
  
"They, they seem to be perfectly normal. His brain waves seem to have settled down and there seems to have been no adverse affects whatsoever."  
  
"Excellent. As soon as we have dealt with the Wolverine, we will be ready to proceed with phase two."  
  
Thank you for your reviews Karakin and DemonRogue 13, as always you are my source of inspiration. Thank you!  
Will Logan be able to overcome the new and improved Omega Red? Will Lance discover the truth about Pietro and Hydra? You'll have to wait until chapter five to find out. 


	5. Duel on the Rooftop

**

Chapter V

**   
  
The wind whipped into Logan's face at such an incredible speed that it stung his eyes. The carriage they were standing on suddenly swayed beneath them and Logan almost lost his footing – he had momentarily forgotten that he was standing on top of a train carriage. As he took a moment to steady himself, Omega Red lunged at him with his blade, aiming the blow for Logan's throat.Using the incredible reflexes that had kept him alive for so long, Logan ducked under the lunge and kicked at Omega Red's legs, knocking him backwards. Logan drew his katana from its sheath on his back and brought it up to the en guarde position in front of him. Omega Red grinned toothily and lunged at Logan, allowing him to strike him in the arm. The katana blade easily sliced through Omega Red's coat and should have bitten into his arm but to Logan's surprise, when the katana hit Omega Red's arm it felt as though he had just hit a brick wall. The shock made him loose his grip on his sword, and it slid across the roof to the very edge where it came to rest about an inch away from falling."What's wrong Logan, you look surprised." Omega Red shouted triumphantly, holding his arm up. "I've had a couple of modifications since the last time we met. This is my favourite – a cybernetic arm." Omega Red suddenly lashed out and struck Logan in the jaw. Over the years, Logan had taken plenty of punches, but this was something new. Being hit felt as though he had just slammed jaw first into a speeding lorry – Logan was thrown several feet backwards, blood spraying from his mouth. As he desperately tried to gather his senses he could tell that his jaw was in bad shape – probably broken at the very least.Omega Red's face suddenly appeared above his, a hungry gleam in his eyes. Logan knew that look – it was the look of a predator who is about to make his kill – and as Omega Red hauled him to his feet he knew he was in for a world of pain.

* * *

Ray had taken up a position by the door of the carriage, whilst Betsy was standing at the far end of the corridor, guns in their hands. If an attack was going to come, the Hydra soldiers would have to come down the carriage – straight into Betsy's field of fire. Of course, they could just throw a grenade down the carriage, which would probably finish them all off in one go – messy, but effective.

Betsy was just thinking this when she heard the thunk of a grenade landing in the middle of the carriage. She was too far away to reach it in time, but as she watched Ray picked it up and, moving at an exceptional speed, hurled it out of the open window that was nearby. The grenade detonated just outside the train, shattering several nearby windows and spraying Ray with shards of glass.He fell back clutching at his eyes, and as he did so Betsy spotted a Hydra soldier at the end of the carriage. Bringing her Beretta pistol up to shoulder height, she sighted down the barrel and snapped off two shots. The first shot hit the soldier in the shoulder, the next in the throat. Realising that there were survivors the following Hydra soldiers paused in their advance, planning their next manoeuvre. Betsy took the time to check on Ray.He wasn't badly injured – his face was just slightly scratched, thankfully none of the glass had got in his eyes. Betsy helped him to his feet, keeping her eye on the end of the carriage, in case any of the Hydra soldiers tried to attack again. Ray had just got to his feet, when the next three Hydra soldiers came around the corner, and opened fire from the hip with their machine guns. Luckily they weren't sure where Betsy was, so their shots went wild – slamming into walls and windows. Betsy and Ray returned fire, felling two of them and wounding the third, who Ray finished off with a shot to the head."What we could really do with are some grenades of our own," Ray said angrily to Betsy, as they took cover in the doorway to their compartment."Yeah, but we don't have any so we're just going to have to make do. We can hold them off here, as long as they don't have any heavier backup."

* * *

Logan was slammed into the roof of the train so hard that he could have sworn that it had made a Logan shaped dent. Omega Red pulled back his cybernetic arm to deliver the coup de gras, but Logan just had enough strength left to roll out of the way, whilst at the same time lash out at Omega Red. His kick had little strength behind it, but it was enough to make Omega Red take a step back in caution.

As Logan scrabbled to his feet, he realised that he had rolled over to his katana. He picked it up and spun around, feet automatically shifting into a combat stance. Omega Red looked slightly taken aback, but then he smiled. "Bring it on, you pathetic weakling!"Logan feinted left, then attempted to hack at Omega Red's neck. Omega Red blocked the blow with his wrist blade and lunged at Logan's unprotected chest, but Logan quickly side-stepped the attack and kicked Omega Red's legs out from under him. The larger man crashed to the floor and Logan stabbed the katana down into Omega Red's left leg. The blade cut through his flesh easily and the Russian let out a cry of pain as blood formed a pool around his leg. Suddenly the fight had shifted in Logan's favour.Omega Red suddenly hit Logan in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Omega Red ripped the katana out of his leg and threw it off the top of the train. Logan watched it fly through the air for a mere second before it vanished. Logan got to his feet and faced the Russian, who was limping. Both men were getting tired and Logan knew that it would only be a matter of time before someone made the fatal mistake. Unfortunately, Omega Red still had the advantage with his cybernetic arm.

* * *

Betsy and Ray were standing amongst a pile of dead Hydra soldiers. They had both taken machine guns from their fallen opponents and had dealt with the remaining soldiers. Now they were searching for Logan.

"He's not in this carriage," Ray announced, after having checked thoroughly."Where could he be?" Betsy asked angrily. Ray kept silent, knowing that she was really just asking herself."You don't trust him?"You don't know him like I do," Betsy replied, her voice full of anger."So what has he done that was so terrible?" Ray ventured after several seconds' silence.Betsy swallowed audibly and shook her head. "He is utterly unscrupulous– he will work for the person who pays him the most money, regardless of what it is they want him to do.""You think Hydra have bought his services, and he's a traitor." It was a statement, not a question."I don't think there's any doubt about it. Hydra seems to know all our moves in advance. He's the only logical reason."

* * *

Logan and Omega Red were now engaged in a furious hand-to-hand fight, Logan was managing to hold his own against Omega Red's brute power thanks to his mastery of martial arts, but only just. Omega Red suddenly broke through his guard, picked him up and threw him so that he almost landed on the next carriage. Winded, Logan looked up and smiled.

Omega Red looked confused as to what Logan was smiling about, and he still looked confused when he was torn in half as the train entered a tunnel. Logan lay flat on his back, not daring to move until the train emerged from the tunnel, when he sat up and looked around.There didn't seem to be any trace of Omega Red left, except for the blood on the roof and his wrist blade, which had got embedded into the roof at some point during the fight. Logan got shakily to his feet, picked up the blade and then went to the side of the carriage. He knew the door below him would be open – it was the one they had used to get up to the roof in the first place – so he stabbed the blade into the side of the carriage and, in a movement that caused him a considerable amount of pain, he swung himself into the carriage.Shaking his head to clear it, Logan took stock of his situation. There were several dead Hydra soldiers at his feet – hopefully Warren, Betsy and Ray were still alive."I wondered when you were going to turn up." Logan turned at Betsy's accusatory tone and saw Betsy, Ray behind her, standing in the doorway of the carriage. He also saw the gun in Betsy's hand pointed at him."Hey, I'm on your side." Logan had to force his jaw to form the words, and it hurt like hell but he still managed it."I'm just being careful." Betsy said, keeping the gun trained on Logan. "Where have you been?""I've just been on the roof, fighting with one of the Hydra operatives – Omega Red.""Really?" Betsy's tone was loaded with sarcasm. "That was quite helpful – got you out of the way during the firefight.""I'm not a traitor!" Logan insisted."Like hell you're not!"In the confined space of the carriage, the gunshot sounded like a miniature explosion.

* * *

"Omega Red has failed us. It is time to utilise Gemini."

"But Madam Director, is it really… wise to use Gemini now?""I thought you said all the tests were good?""I did, it's just that I'm worried – wasn't Omega Red supposed to be the best operative you have?""Yes, so?""Well if he couldn't kill Wolverine, will Gemini be able to do so? It would be terrible if we lost him after so much work."

"Gemini will be able to handle Wolverine with ease, don't worry. Soon his miserable life will be at an end and we will be able to stop worrying about the loathsome insect."

Thank you for reviewing karakin and demonrogue 13, and sorry about the huge delay in updating - my internet access has been down for a while. The next update should be up in the next few days.


	6. The Traitor

**Chapter VI**

Betsy staggered forwards, before dropping to her knees, blood seeping through her jacket. Logan was so surprised that it took him several seconds before he could look at the man who had betrayed them. Ray's pistol was levelled at Logan's chest, and Logan knew that if he made any sudden moves, Ray wouldn't hesitate to fire at him as well.

"Why did you shoot her?" he asked evenly. "She had been getting on my nerves for sometime now," Ray said matter-of-factly. "Although I must say that her constant suspicion of _you_ as the traitor did make my job much easier." 

"So you're a Hydra agent?" Logan asked, his eyes scanning the compartment to see if there was anything that could give him the upper hand in this situation.

"Correct. And the director will be very pleased when I inform her of your death. She is most annoyed that you killed Omega Red.""What makes you think that you can kill me, when Omega Red failed?" Logan asked, trying to buy himself some time."I have you held at gunpoint - Betsy is hardly going to be able to save you and Warren has no idea of what's going on. It's a shame really," Ray said thoughtfully, "you were all doing so well, it would have been interesting to see how far you would have got before dying. As it is, you almost got to Hydra's base - it's only eight miles south of Murmansk. But now it is your time to die." Without warning Ray pointed his gun at Logan's leg and fired.Logan let out a groan of pain and dropped to the floor, clutching his left kneecap whilst Ray smirked. "I hope you're not too fond of walking," Ray said as he levelled his gun at Logan's right kneecap. His finger was hovering over the trigger when Betsy suddenly lashed out with a sudden burst of strength and unbalanced Ray.Instantly Logan forced himself to lunge forwards and disarm Ray with a swift hand movement. Unarmed and outnumbered, Ray began to back away but upon realising that his opponent's were both badly injured he grinned and pulled a long, wide-bladed knife from his boot. Logan ducked under his first, wild swipe and hit him in the chest with a powerful straight kick, which winded Ray and made him drop the knife and stagger backwards. Logan quickly scooped the knife off the floor and threw it without pausing to aim. The knife embedded itself in Ray's throat and Ray stared at the knife for several seconds - his face a mask of almost comic surprise - before he collapsed to the floor and lay still.Logan helped Betsy to stand and she leaned against the wall for support. Neither of them spoke for a while, but it was Betsy who broke the silence first. "Why did you kill him?" she demanded, a steely note audible even in her weak voice.Logan sighed. "Where do I start? He tried to kill you. He was trying to kill me. He was going to kill…""I meant that he would have been useful to interrogate!" Betsy interrupted, shaking her head in an exasperated manner."That bastard just kneecapped me. I really wasn't in the mood to do anymore talking." Logan suddenly grimaced in pain as he accidentally leant some of his weight on his left leg. "Besides, he told us what we need to know. Hydra's base is eight miles south of Murmansk."

* * *

Warren had his gun in his hand when Betsy and Logan returned to the compartment - Logan supporting almost all of Betsy's weight. Logan laid her gently down across several seats and turned to Warren, who had begun to ask a question."Do you have a first aid kit or something, 'cause she's lost a lot of blood." Warren opened his mouth to speak, though better of it and rummaged around in his bag until he found a first aid kit.  
Looking through it Logan was impressed, it had a lot more than a normal first aid kit would have. He pulled out a syringe and put a measure of painkillers into it, before injecting it into Betsy's shoulder. He also wrapped a tight bandage around Betsy's side. "That's all I can do until we get to Murmansk. She'll need to go to a hospital when we arrive.""What about you?" Warren asked, indicating his numerous bruises and injuries."I'll be fine," Logan waved away the inquiry, injecting himself with a dose of painkillers before leaning back in his seat and seemingly falling asleep instantly. Warren didn't want to wake him, although he had a lot of questions that needed answering.The train pulled into Murmansk half an hour later and Logan was awake as soon as the train stopped. Together, Warren and Logan half-carried, half-dragged Betsy off the train and then directly to the hospital, the location of which Logan found out from a station guard. Warren checked Betsy into the hospital while Logan bought a map of the surrounding area and they met up outside the hospital."Betsy's going to be taken care of. I've left her a message and told her that we'll meet her back here," Warren explained."I've checked out all the maps I could find. The only thing I've seen of interest is that there is an old weather monitoring station about eight miles south of here. Chances are that could be where Hydra is." Logan showed Warren his discovery. "You ready to go?" Warren nodded and the two set off southwards.

* * *

The door to room 101 of the Murmansk hospital was opened by a young, smartly dressed doctor, who had short silver blonde hair that was brushed into a neat side parting. He took a long look at his patient before closing the door and moving over to her bed. Her name was Elisabeth Braddock and she had been shot just below her ribcage. The bullet hadn't done any real damage, but she had suffered quite bad blood loss.The doctor nodded his head, apparently having come to some conclusion, put down his clipboard and reached into his coat. He drew out a silenced Beretta pistol and proceeded to fire at the patient's comatose body. As the first bullet tore through her spine, Betsy let out a small groan but after that she was silent. The man only stopped firing when the magazine had finally been exhausted. The empty magazine dropped to the floor with a clatter and the doctor slapped a new one into its place.The door suddenly opened and a young nurse walked in, reading a chart on a clipboard. She looked up and upon seeing the doctor with a gun in his hand and the dead patient; she dropped the clipboard and opened her mouth to scream. Unfortunately, by this time she had been hit four times by bullets that tore through her body and she was thrown against the door, staining the white paint a dark red.The doctor slipped his Beretta inside his coat and left the room, stepping over the nurse's corpse so not to stain his shoes. He walked purposefully through the hospital and out the front door, then into a dark alley next to the hospital. He pulled off his doctor's coat and put it in a small bag, then straightened up and walked out the alley dressed as a smart businessman. As he walked down the street, Pietro smiled to himself. Another one down meant that there were only two left to go - the Wolverine and Worthington.

* * *

Warren and Logan arrived at the old weather station just as dusk was setting in. Warren leant against one of the walls, checking their position on the map whilst Logan took a look around. If there had been any activity here recently, it had been covered up extremely well.Logan limped over to Warren shaking his head. The walk had taken its toll on Logan's injury, but he had banished the pain to the back of his mind and over time he had just got so used to it that he now ignored it. "I can't see any sign of use. This place is abandoned."

"Not quite abandoned," a voice said from behind them. Inwardly cursing himself for allowing someone to sneak up behind him, Logan turned around slowly. A dozen men in black jumpsuits were aiming machine guns at Logan and Warren, and in the middle of them was a figure that Logan recognised instantly. "It's been a long time since Finland, hasn't it Wolverine?" the woman asked casually, as though she was inquiring after the health of an old acquaintance. "And a lot has changed in that time." A sly smile spread across her face. "Do you want to see exactly what you delivered in Finland?"

"I know what I gave you." Logan ground out his words between clenched teeth."You gave us our newest and ultimate weapon." From behind the woman a man stepped forwards, his silver blonde hair defined by the moonlight."Hey Wolverine. Remember me?"  
  
Author's Note: I am so, so, so sorry that it has taken me so long to update this story, I've just been swamped with work and my computer has been breaking down again. Thank you so much for your reviews last chapter karakin and daemonrogue 13, if you're still reading this I promise, barring my untimely death, that the next chapter will be up in the next couple of days. 


	7. Revelation

**

Chapter VII

**  
  
For several seconds that seemed to last an infinitely longer time, Wolverine and Pietro stared at each other, mere feet of snow separating the two men. Finally it was Wolverine who broke the silence. "Maximoff. I wondered exactly what they wanted you for," he jerked his thumb towards the woman and her soldiers.  
  
"They wanted me, because they realised my potential." Pietro smiled, and Logan was quite alarmed to see the glimmer of insanity in Pietro's eyes. "They realised that I could become their greatest weapon. And now I am the instrument that will usher in the apocalypse of the world." As he was speaking, Logan was casting a critical eye over Pietro. Outwardly the young man looked identical to the last time Logan had seen him, albeit he was now fully fit and wearing an expensive designer suit. But there was something in his eyes that made Logan feel that there was something wholly wrong with Pietro. It was like a deformity, but physically nothing was wrong with Pietro.  
  
"You talk big, but you could have simply been brainwashed by them," Logan countered. "What makes you think that you are so good all of a sudden?"  
  
Pietro didn't reply, at least not with words. He darted forwards, almost faster than Logan could follow, and struck Logan a blow with the palm of his hand. Logan was picked up as if by some giant invisible hand, and hurled backwards to land in a snowdrift that painfully broke his fall. Luckily he hadn't injured anything vital, but he was winded and as he lay on the floor trying to regain his breath, Pietro came to stand over him.  
  
"As you can see, I have changed since our last meeting," the wide smile still hadn't left Pietro's face. "I am more than a match for you, or anyone else in the world for that matter. And I am Hydra's instrument of death."  
  
At this point Warren moved forwards to address the woman. "So you are the new head of Hydra, I presume?"  
  
The woman turned her head and regarded him for a while before speaking. A dark cowl covered the woman's face, so Warren couldn't see any of her face but he thought he could make out two eyes glimmering in the darkness. "That is correct. And you are the founder of Hydra, Warren Worthington. I have waited for a long time to meet you, although I wish it could be in slightly happier circumstances." The way the woman said this implied that she was perfectly happy with the way things were at present.  
  
"If I might, could I find out who has taken over the running of my organisation after I left?" Warren asked politely, prompting another moment's thought before an answer came.  
  
"My name is Viper, and I am the director of Hydra. I resurrected your organisation and I have been running it for the past five years. We have been very successful, although I have transferred much of our resources away from money-making schemes and towards terrorism schemes." She began to turn away, when Warren's voice stopped her.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"That's a good question," Viper said, turning to regard Warren from under her cowl. "We aren't some religious group, dedicated to terrorism because we believe it will bring us the freedom from our oppressors, whoever they might be. Neither are we some extremist movement that utilises terror to demand concessions from other countries. Rather, we commit these acts because we love the terror they cause. We are terrorists for terrors sake, dedicated to tearing down the fabric of the world as we know it."  
  
"That's got to be the worst reason I have ever heard!" Logan growled as he got to his feet, Pietro watching him carefully only a few feet away.  
  
"Terror is its own reward and we going to leave our mark on this world, Logan," she said, brushing past his question. "It is unfortunate that you will not live to see it, but then again you should not have chosen to get involved in our business." She turned on her heel, gave some directions to the soldiers in Russian, then walked off into the night. Pietro and the soldiers herded Logan and Warren along behind her, Pietro keeping a careful eye on Logan's back. Despite his age, Logan was still a formidable adversary.

* * *

Only mere tens of feet away a man lay concealed in the snow, watching the procession move off. Lance had been watching the proceedings with his binoculars, that is until he spotted Pietro amongst the crowd of people. He still couldn't believe that his best friend was alive and fighting for the other side. Before he'd dropped his binoculars in shock he had seen several people he recognised. On one side had been the infamous Wolverine and a man Lance had identified as Warren Worthington, a wealthy billionaire.  
  
Dragging himself out of his stupor, Lance forced himself to get to his feet and follow the group, making sure that he himself was not seen. The group walked on for about fifteen minutes until they came to a small lake. They stopped at the side of the lake and Lance wondered what they were going to do, when suddenly the lake began splitting in half, revealing an underground chamber. Lance was taken aback again - it was like something out of a James Bond movie.  
  
As the group began to descend into the underground chamber Lance got up and, once the last person had vanished inside and the lake had begun closing, slipped inside himself. The interior was sparsely lit and Lance hit the walls several times before he made it out of the chamber. The corridor he came to was bare and metallic, and the lights on the wall reflected dully off the other walls, creating more darkness than they drove away.  
  
Lance drew his pistol and advanced slowly down the corridor, his every footstep echoing like an explosion to his ears. After travelling a long way, he came to an intersection where the corridor split three ways. Lance was just pondering which way to take, when he felt the muzzle of a gun graze the small of his back.  
  
"Don't move!" a harsh voice said. "Drop your gun!" Lance obeyed and let the Beretta fall to the floor. "Now, move!" the speaker gave Lance a hard shove in the small of his back as he directed him down a corridor.

* * *

Logan was shoved into a dark and dank cell by two of Viper's soldiers, before the door was slammed shut behind them. He lay on the cold stone floor, weariness flooding his body and he closed his eyes and let unconsciousness take him.  
  
Viper and two of her soldiers meanwhile led Warren into a laboratory room. "Do you know Warren that we managed the greatest breakthrough in genetic science ever, and no one will ever credit us with the discovery?"  
  
"Really?" Warren said with a tone of polite indifference that provoked a short, harsh laugh from Viper. She was about to say something when a loud beeping came from her belt. She pulled out a small communicator and flicked it on.  
  
"Viper speaking."  
  
"Madam director we've captured another prisoner, this one inside the base."  
  
"Take him to detention cell A-12, I've got more important matters to attend to."  
  
"But that's Wolverine's cell, are you sure it's…"  
  
"I _know_ that it's Wolverine's cell and if you don't take him to that cell block then you will shortly be missing several vital organs. Do I make myself clear?"  
  
"Of course, madam director." The communicator fell silent.  
  
"Now, as I was saying, follow me and I will show you the greatest breakthrough in genetic science ever." Viper led Warren through the room, the two guards tailing them, until they came to a thickset steel door. Viper placed her palm on a flat screen, which hummed for several seconds before emitting a beep and the first door slid open. Viper then pulled back her cowl and stepped forwards for a retina scan.  
  
Warren was struck by her appearance - she had pale skin and very high cheekbones. Her short hair was an emerald green colour, as was her lipstick and her eyes. The retina scan completed the second door slid open with a hiss of pressurised gas and Viper stepped into the room beyond, gesturing for Warren to follow.  
  
A tall tank that was lit by half a dozen floor lights dominated the room. Warren studied the tank, but couldn't make out what was in it for several seconds. When he did, his jaw dropped and he almost fell over as his mind reeled. Viper laughed as she saw Warren's expression.  
  
"I knew you'd be impressed," she said smugly. 

Thank you so much for still reviewing my story karakin, I know I am really slow at updating but there will not be another delay as long as last time again.


	8. The Truth About Pietro

**

Chapter VIII

**  
  
Author's Note: This is it, the chapter you've all been waiting for. The chapter where you find out what happened to Pietro. To find out just read on... "I hate to say I told you so," Viper grinned smugly. "But your face is just priceless."  
  
Warren barely heard Viper's gloating as he stared in open-mouthed horror at what he saw before him. Inside the chamber was a person - frozen in stasis - a person who he had seen mere minutes ago. Pietro Maximoff stared at a point on the opposite wall with unseeing eyes, his mouth open in a silent scream. He was clad in the ragged remains of a suit that was covered in dried blood, as was his face. Warren shook his head slowly, trying desperately to come to terms with what he was seeing. It was impossible, utterly impossible, that Pietro could be here and also outside. 

"I guess you are wondering what exactly is going on here." Viper said in response to his unasked question. "So let me fill you in. For five years we have been working to make the ultimate breakthrough in genetic science. The scientist in Britain managed to clone Dolly the sheep, but we went one step further. It took a lot of work and a lot of failure, but eventually we managed to perfect human cloning!"  
  
"No," Warren said shaking his head in disbelief. "That can't be, I mean it couldn't be…"  
  
"Then how do you explain the presence of Pietro in here and outside? This is the original Pietro, who your good friend Wolverine delivered to us after the destruction of Genoa, and the person who you saw outside is a clone. Barring a few physical enhancements, the Pietro outside is an identical copy of the person in here."  
  
"Why Pietro?" Warren said in a much calmer voice, though his mind was still reeling from the implications of the revelation he had just heard.  
  
"In the last year, as our research has been coming to fruition, Pietro Maximoff has become a figurehead of international justice. I thought it would be deliciously ironic that Pietro in now our agent of anarchy and terrorism, and it is through him that the end of the world will come about.  
  
"You've referred to your plan to destroy the world several times now, but you haven't been very specific. Care to share any details now?"  
  
"Ah yes, this is the point where I, as the villain, tell you my master plan secure in the knowledge that you are about to die and you then somehow manage to cheat death and stop my plan. Well I'm afraid that this time it's not quite going to play out like that. You're just going to have to wait to find out my plan, sorry to disappoint you."

* * *

Lance was led to the cells by the guard that had captured him in the corridor and another one who joined them. They had descended two levels when a figure approached them, coming from the opposite direction, and Lance stopped instantly when he saw who it was - Pietro. Pietro stopped at the same time as Lance did, and studied Lance with a rather confused air.  
  
"Do I know you?" Pietro said challengingly. Lance struggled for the right words but they refused to come - he was just such a tangle of emotions, seeing his friend again after so long and Pietro being so changed. "Well!" Pietro demanded this time angry.  
  
"It's me Pietro… Lance," he added when Pietro seemed not to recognised him. Upon hearing his name, Pietro frowned in concentration as if he was trying desperately to remember Lance but just couldn't do it. Abruptly, Pietro turned on his heel and strode off, leaving Lance and the guards standing in the corridor, rather bemused.  
  
"All right, let's get a move on," one of the guards said, prodding Lance hard in the back with his pistol.

* * *

Pietro made his way swiftly to the labs, where he knew Viper was currently, with Warren in attendance. Pietro didn't know what was so important about the labs, Viper had expressly forbade him from entering them and he'd never been bothered to force his way in - he'd been too busy training. But now he needed to talk to Viper urgently - that run in with the person who had claimed to be called Lance had shaken him. He could have sworn he recognised the man from somewhere, yet when he tried to think back a long way everything got particularly hazy. He had distant memories of a dark, steel room, but before that there were only very patchy memories that he could barely remember.  
  
As he approached the entrance to the laboratories, Pietro noticed the guards stationed in the corridor murmuring into their communicators, doubtlessly informing the guards at the lab of his approach. This only heightened Pietro's suspicions - was Viper trying to hide something from him and if so, what was it? He approached the armoured lab doors, which had been left open behind Viper, although half a dozen armed and armoured elite Hydra soldiers stood guard in front of them.  
  
The leader of the guards, a second lieutenant Pietro noticed by the insignia on his sleeve, stepped forward and cleared his throat nervously. Everyone in Hydra had seen what Pietro could do and the lieutenant was unsurprisingly nervous about accosting the new agent. "I'm sorry, but you are not authorised to proceed any further." Pietro could detect a tremor of fear in the man's voice.  
  
"On whose authority?" Pietro snapped. He wasn't used to being denied anything by any members of Hydra. Not ones who intended to live for a long time, anyway.  
  
"The director's," the man said, shifting his sub-machine gun around so that it hung just by his hand. Not particularly subtle, but then not many of Hydra's tactics were. Pietro grinned hungrily, almost daring the guard to make a wrong move and give him an excuse to get violent. He hadn't had any fun since the hospital in Murmansk.  
  
"Move," Pietro growled, and the lieutenant took a step back involuntarily before he remembered that he had the advantage of numbers and drew himself up to his full height. "Move!" Pietro said louder, suddenly filled with rage. How dare this man disobey his commands? The lieutenant slowly turned around to glance at his men, then went for his gun. Pietro had moved before his hands had even touched the gun, his left hand striking out and ripping through the lieutenant's throat, tearing muscle and sinew apart in one fluid move. The other five guards grabbed their guns and opened fire, but Pietro was no longer standing where he had been a second ago. He leapt into the air and landed behind two of the guards, who he pushed forwards into the line of fire of their comrades. Pietro let out a harsh laugh as they were cut down by their friends.  
  
One of the last two guards dropped his gun and pulled out a six inch knife, slashing wildly at Pietro. Pietro caught the blade in his hand and wrenched it from the man's grasp before turning it on its wielder, ignoring the blood the soaked his sleeve.  
  
The last man dropped his gun and tried to flee, only to have Pietro grab him from behind and wrenched his head sideways with such power that the man's spine cracked and Pietro dropped the limp corpse. The scent of blood now filling his brain, Pietro pushed on into the lab, searching angrily for Viper. She would provide him with answers, or she would go the way of her soldiers.

* * *

Viper and Warren turned their heads suddenly as they heard the sound of gunfire. Warren glanced at Viper and saw her frowning in anger and smiled slightly. Already something was going wrong for her. Viper pulled out her communicator and spoke hurriedly into it before snapping it shut in anger. She directed her two guards to leave the lab and they hurried off, but several seconds later there were several muted screams, and then silence.  
  
"So, what's happening?" Warren said calmly. Viper shot him a venomous look but responded anyway.  
  
"There seems to be a slight… difficulty, but don't worry we have everything under control."  
  
The clone Pietro suddenly burst into view, preceded by the dismembered corpse of one of the guards. He pointed at Viper, "We need to have a talk!" he said talking in a horse voice full of rage. He stopped suddenly when he noticed the real Pietro and stood open mouthed, his brain shuddering to a halt. What was going on? Why was there someone who looked exactly like him frozen in stasis? And why did he recognise this room so well?  
  
Viper looked at Pietro who seemed to be tearing himself apart trying to sort out what was going on, and Warren saw wipe her brow surreptitiously. Warren suddenly had the feeling that this situation was about to get a lot worse very quickly.  
  
Viper stared at Pietro and cursed violently in every language she knew. The one thing above all else that she had wanted to avoid was Pietro discovering what was in the laboratories. It could undo everything she had worked hard to build up, everything she had taught Pietro about his past so that he could pass off as a perfect copy of the real thing. And judging from his expression, all of those things were unravelling as she watched. She slowly moved her hand down to her communicator and pressed the button she'd hoped she would never have to use, and armed her last resort security system. If Pietro tried anything stupid she'd have no choice but to kill him, despite how much of a setback that would be. 

Author's Note: Thank you so much for your reviews deamonrogue 13 and karakin I'm really glad you're still reviewing my story.


	9. Weight of Numbers

**

Chapter IX

**  
"What the hell is… that?" Pietro said, his voice twisted with horrified fascination. Viper watched his face carefully, trying to gauge what was going through his mind. Pietro's face had changed rapidly - originally he had looked as though he would tear himself apart from the inner struggle he was going through, but now his face was devoid of any emotion, only his eyes, which burned with rage, showed what he was feeling now.  
  
"Pietro," Viper said in her most meek and pacifying voice. "How did you get in here?" Despite her wheedling tone, Warren could detect a steely note that indicated her displeasure at Pietro's unannounced entry.  
  
"Stop trying to distract me!" Pietro shouted angrily at her. "Tell me what that… thing is!" Viper and Warren both took a step back at Pietro's angry outburst and Viper considered activating her security system, only the realisation of how much research and money would be lost if she did stopped her.  
  
"Pietro," Viper took a deep breath before pressing on, "you are a clone." For a moment there was a stunned silence before Pietro let out a high-pitched laugh.  
  
"So if you cloned me, why is my clone inside that tank?" Pietro said after he had recovered from his fit of laughter. Viper's eyes widened perceptibly and Warren frowned. The Pietro clone didn't seem to be taking the news so well.  
  
"No Pietro, you are the clone. That person in the tank is the original Pietro…"  
  
"No!" The Pietro clone shouted. "That's ridiculous. I'm Pietro Maximoff, not a clone!" he practically screamed. "Stop lying to me!" The Pietro clone advanced towards Viper whose hand dropped to her security device.  
  
"Pietro, don't come any closer!" she warned but the clone ignored her, instead stepping closer to her and raising his left hand, his eyes shining with madness. Viper took a step back in fear, before pressing down the button on her security device for a second time. All of a sudden, a security door slammed down from the ceiling, sealing off the part of the lab that Viper was in from the part that Pietro was in. Warren looked at Viper in surprise and she let out a long sigh of relief.  
  
"What just happened?" he asked.  
  
"I've just sealed Pietro off in the exterior part of the lab with some of our earlier creations. Unfortunately, he doesn't stand a chance." Viper picked up a nearby test tube rack and hurled it against the opposite wall. "I knew that we couldn't let Pietro get in here. Dammnit, that's years of research and money wasted! If I get my hands on whoever let him in there I am going to kill them!"

* * *

Pietro knew he was in trouble as soon as the emergency wall slammed down between him and Viper, and even in his current mental state he was able to realise this. He heard several doors slide open with a hiss of pressurised gas and he looked about him, but he couldn't see where those doors were. Quickly he stripped the dead soldier at his feet of all his weapons and listened intently, trying to locate where the people that had opened the doors were.  
  
Pietro suddenly heard the sound of someone knocking into a bench and the sound of glass test tubes shattering on the floor. Pietro whirled around to the source of the noise and opened fire, spraying the area with bullets from his machine gun. After several seconds Pietro stopped firing and watched as a figure staggered forwards. The person was slightly taller than Pietro, with blue eyes, very short dark hair and his grey coveralls were covered in a yellow, pussy looking liquid.  
  
Anger welling up inside him, Pietro raised his pistol and fired six shots into the man's head in rapid succession. The man staggered as the bullets tore into his face, but he barely even faltered. Pietro's mouth twisted into a sneer and he picked up his machine gun and fired off an entire round into the man's torso. Entire chunks of his flesh were blown away, but the man didn't stop shambling forwards.  
  
"What the hell are you!" Pietro swore, running forwards with the soldier's knife in his hand. He slashed down at the man's throat, tearing away another chunk of flesh. Where blood should have poured out of the man's slashed throat, a strange yellowy pus like liquid dripped down the man's coveralls. Before Pietro could react the man slammed his fist into Pietro's chest and Pietro was flung backwards into the wall, all the breath driven from his body. Despite the man's shambolic movements there was a hell of a lot of power behind his strikes.  
  
As Pietro pulled himself to his feet, he noticed another man watching him. This man was about the same height as he was and had a plain, nondescript face. He wore a suit just like Pietro, but unlike Pietro's his suit was old and tatty looking. Pietro went for his machine gun and raised it to fire at the man, but before he could pull the trigger the man had vanished.  
  
Pietro looked about in astonishment, wondering how anything could move faster than he could see with his enhanced vision, and at that point the man hit Pietro in the chest with a wickedly hooked and barbed knife. Pietro roared in anger and lashed out at the man, this time connecting with a punch that would have shattered a breeze block. The man took the punch as if it was nothing more than a slight tap before wrenching the knife out of Pietro in a welter of blood.  
  
As he staggered back, clutching at his wound Pietro knew that he was in a lot more trouble than he had thought. Regaining his footing Pietro suddenly noticed something on the back of the man with the knife's neck - a small black box with a glowing red light in its centre. The man surged forwards and Pietro neatly ducked his knife lunge and while the man's guard was down Pietro reached behind him and crushed the box with his right hand. Instantly the man dropped the knife and looked about him, as if he had no idea where he was. Pietro slammed his fist into the man's chest and heard a satisfyingly wet crunching sound as the man's ribs collapsed in on themselves puncturing his heart and lungs. The man collapsed with a scream and Pietro turned to face his other assailant, who hadn't done much except for shambling forwards slightly, the pus like fluid still dripping down his coveralls.  
  
Pietro picked up the only weapon he hadn't yet used and looked at it thoughtfully. There must be someway he could use the grenade to take out this seemingly invulnerable guy, and he thought he had a plan. Pietro launched himself forwards and drove his fist into the man's stomach, tearing a hole in his flesh. Ducking a slow flail of the man's arm, he pulled the pin out of his grenade, thrust it into the hole he'd made and dived for cover. A couple of seconds later there was a muffled explosion and the wet slap as chunks of flesh hit the walls all over the laboratory. Pietro got up from behind his cover and smiled as he saw the scattered pieces of his assailant. Now time to deal with Viper.  
  
Pietro had turned to look at the security wall when his attention was caught again by a noise behind him. He turned to look at what his was, and his heart leapt into his mouth. A humanoid shaped figure, over seven feet tall, towered above him. Its face was grotesquely warped; it was like an ill-fitting piece of film wrapped around a skull that was obviously too large for it. Its right arm was large and knotted with muscles, but its left arm was horribly atrophied; it simply hung by its side, completely useless. A bead of saliva hung from its mouth as it gazed down at Pietro with an expression of pure malice in its eyes.

* * *

Viper and Warren both heard the sound of gunfire and then, a while later, the muffled explosion of the hand grenade. Warren glanced at Viper who smiled calmly. "Don't worry, I would have been disappointed if Pietro couldn't handle our first two experiments - he was meant to be superior in every way to them. Its our third experiment I'm interested in. We designed this clone for pure power, aggression and sheer physical toughness. I doubt Pietro has beaten the first two unscathed; he should be easy pickings for #421."  
  
Warren nodded, thinking to himself how the best plans often don't survive contact with the enemy. Was Viper underestimating Pietro's tenacity and sheer will to win? He'd love to see the look on her face if she found out she had, only then he'd probably end up dying as well as her. Much better if he could find his way out of here before things started to get really nasty.  
  
Author's Note: Karakin, Daemonrogue 13, I'm glad you both liked last chapter and my explanation as to what had happened to Pietro; thank you so much for your reviews! What did you think had happened to Pietro, DaemonRogue? 


	10. 421

**

Chapter X

**  
As the huge monster lunged at him, Pietro found that his legs were momentarily unable to move. Eventually he managed to force them into action and pivoted on his left foot to hit the creature with a spinning roundhouse kick in its chest. The creature stopped as Pietro hit him, grinning madly, before reaching out and grabbing hold of Pietro's leg with his good arm. Pietro's leg was almost wrenched out of its socket as he was picked up by the monster and thrown into the opposite wall.  
  
Pietro's vision swam as he picked himself up and he stumbled unsteadily forwards, blood running down his face from a cut just above his right eye. #421 stomped forwards, his muscular arm reaching out for Pietro again, but this time Pietro was ready for him. Pulling the curved knife he'd taken off one of his two previous assailants, Pietro stabbed it into the creatures' wrist, tearing open an area that should have been filled with vital veins and arteries. Unfortunately for Pietro, the monster's physiology seemed to have changed because very little blood appeared from the cut.  
  
Pietro then changed tactics, and grabbed the monster's hand with his own in an attempt to beat him through sheer physical strength. An expression of surprise covered #421's tiny face as Pietro managed to equal the monster's strength, sweat pouring down his whole body. #421 suddenly let out an angry bellow and forced Pietro backwards with a flex of his bulging arm muscles. Pietro steadied himself before hurling himself back into the fray using every single part of himself as a weapon, including his teeth.  
  
#421 was taken aback by the uncaring ferocity of Pietro's attack - he had never met someone who was as advanced as he was and had the same lack of self-preservation as he did. Whilst he was thinking this Pietro forced his way through the monster's guard and ripped out #421's throat with his hand. Blood gushed down the front of the clone, who roared in anger again and picked Pietro off the floor with his arm. He charged forwards and slammed Pietro into the steel wall, back first, bellowing all the while like a wounded rhinoceros.  
  
As he was slammed into the wall, Pietro bit #421 in the hand as hard as he could and the monster almost let go of him in shock. Spotting an incredibly sharp jutting out piece of metal #421 charged towards it, intent on impaling Pietro on it. At the last minute Pietro managed to extricate himself from the monster's grip and threw himself to the side. #421 stopped himself just before he reached the metal and turned just in time to see Pietro throw a workbench at him. #421 caught the bench and staggered backwards onto the metal, which tore through his chest like it was paper. The monster looked down at the jagged metal protruding from his chest and let out a low whimper. He tried to free himself, but slowly his struggles grew weaker and weaker until they died away altogether.  
  
Pietro took several deep, calming breaths and slowly the red haze that had clouded his brain faded away and he regained control of himself. At the same time, everything he had just been through came rushing back to him and he fell to his knees, physically and mentally drained. He suddenly became aware of dozens of minor wounds, and some not so minor, which he hadn't realised he had before and had to work hard not to black out from the pain.  
  
"That was a very impressive display," a low voice said from behind him. Pietro turned to come face-to-face with a tall, very thin man who was completely bald and wore tinted dark glasses.  
  
"Are you another one of these freaks?" Pietro growled, before being seized by a coughing fit that involved him coughing up a lot of blood. The thin man's lips drew themselves into a tight line that might have been an attempt at a smile.  
  
"No, no, I am not another clone Pietro. I am their creator," the man said this in a way that implied Pietro ought to be very impressed, but he wasn't.  
  
"That's not such a great achievement, y'know. I just killed 'em all single-handedly. I suggest you go back to the drawing board and have another go at designing a killing machine." Pietro was racked by another fit of coughing, which forced him onto his hands and knees and stained the nearby ground with yet more blood.  
  
"I have no need to," the thin man retorted when Pietro had finally finished coughing. "I have already created the ultimate killing machine."  
  
"Great! So where is he," Pietro asked as he forced himself, despite all his wounds, to stand and try and assume a fighting stance. "I'm ready to take on another one of your freaks!" The thin man merely laughed, a high pitched sound that reminded Pietro of finger nails being scratched down a blackboard.  
  
"My dear boy, you misunderstand me. The killing machine I speak of is already here." Pietro looked wildly around him, cursing himself for not taking more care. He had allowed himself to be distracted by this guy and now apparently another monster was here to kill him. Pietro knew he wouldn't be able to win, but he wasn't about to give up. He'd go down fighting. The thin man laughed again. "My dear boy, you are the killing machine."  
  
"What?" Pietro exclaimed as he turned to face the thin man. "I'm no one's machine!" he said, his voice laced with anger.  
  
"How do you think you have become so powerful, Pietro?" The thin man took a step forwards. "Who do you think gave you your enhancements?" Another step closer. "I created you and I nurtured you. Without me, you wouldn't even exist. Without me you are nothing!" The thin man was almost face-to-face with Pietro by now.  
  
"Let me guess, you expect me to believe that you cloned me!" Pietro laughed. "I've already heard that story, so why don't you try something else. How about saying that a stork dropped me on your doorstep!"  
  
"Laugh all you want Pietro, you know it's the truth. I cloned you from the original Pietro Maximoff and I made you what you are today - a perfect copy of the original Maximoff in every way, including every one of his memories. And physically enhanced of course. You are my ultimate creation, the ultimate weapon…"  
  
The thin man was cut off as Pietro's hand darted out and grabbed him by the throat. "I am no one's weapon!" Pietro whispered furiously, his hand clenching around the thin man's throat. "I am the real Pietro Maximoff, I am not a clone!" Pietro's voice rose to a shout as he said this and his hand clenched even more.  
  
"P…Pietro please!" the thin man gasped for air. "I'm your c… creator. I'm… the closest thing you have to… family!" Pietro's eyes narrowed dangerously and his hand contracted even more. The thin man gasped and choked for several seconds before there was a wet snap and he went limp in Pietro's grip. Pietro dropped the corpse and walked over to the security wall. He picked up the plastic explosive he had found on one of the dead soldiers and set it on the wall. He ran for cover and several seconds later there was a tremendous explosion. Pietro rose from his hiding place to see a large section of the wall had been torn through.  
  
Pietro stepped through the gap and came face-to-face with Viper and Warren again. Viper and Warren had both been hurled backwards by the force of the explosion, and Viper was clutching at her arm where a piece of shrapnel had embedded itself. At the sight of Pietro, Viper forgot her injury as her jaw dropped. Warren smiled to himself as he watched Viper's terrified face but he could tell by the look on Pietro's face that he was in serious danger.  
  
"How did you… you're supposed to be dead!" Viper stammered, pointing at Pietro as if willing him to disappear. Pietro smiled coldly.  
  
"I wanted a word with you Viper." He walked over to her and picked her up by her throat. "I'm going to ask you again, and this time I want the truth. Why is there a clone of me in that tank?"  
  
"Pietro, please let go of me!" Viper whined, which made Pietro tighten his grip. "Okay, okay! That person inside the tank is an attempted clone, which failed. We're keeping him to study and see what went wrong." Pietro opened his fist and let her drop to the ground.  
  
"That's more like it," he said and walked past Viper, stepping towards the tank. Warren saw Viper suddenly produce a gun from her sleeve and point it at Pietro's back, and at that instant Warren knew there would be trouble and threw himself behind an overturned table.  
  
Viper pulled the trigger and a bullet tore through Pietro's shoulder. Pietro whirled around and wrenched the gun out of Viper's terrified hand. He pulled her to her feet and smiled madly. "Big mistake," he whispered to her before coldly snapping her neck and dropping her lifeless corpse.  
  
Author's Note: Thank you very much for your kind review last chapter Karakin, I hope you enjoy this chapter! 


	11. Gauntlet is Thrown Down

**

Chapter XI

**  
The two guards came to a halt outside a featureless metal door, and gestured for Lance to do the same. One of the guards began to enter a code into the electronic lock when suddenly his partner touched a hand to his communication device in his ear. A few seconds later he grabbed his partner and muttered to him in a low voice. "We've got a serious problem! Reports are coming in that say that damn clone has been slaughtering its way through our men… shit!" The man heard more information and Lance actually caught what he was saying now. "Unconfirmed reports are coming in that the madam director has been killed!"  
  
The other guard's jaw dropped a few centimetres, his shock palpable. "What do we do now?" he asked in a very high-pitched, nervous voice.  
  
"What do you think we do now?" his comrade snapped. "We've got to get out of here." The guard pulled a pistol from its holster and checked the magazine.  
  
"What are you going to do?" the other guard asked nervously.  
  
"We can't take his with us," the guard gestured at Lance. "And we can't just leave him here." He levelled his pistol at Lance and narrowed one eye. Lance felt beads of sweat run down the back of his neck and wondered how exactly he would get out of this one.  
  
"Wait!" the other guard graved his companion's arm and pulled his aim away from Lance. "We don't need to kill him."  
  
"Why the hell not?" The other guard shook off his hand and glared at him angrily.  
  
"Let's just put him in there." the guard jerked his thumb at the cell door. "It'll save time and we've got to get out of here."" The guard's eyes flicked from side-to-side as if he expected an attack to come at any time. His companion looked torn between killing Lance anyway and doing what his friend suggested. Eventually he nodded.  
  
"Get on it then!" The other guard finished opening the door and shoved Pietro inside. The room was small and dimly lit by tube lights set into the ceiling. The room had one other occupant, which Lance recognised as the person he would least like to see.  
  
Wolverine sat up slowly when Lance entered his cell. He looked Lance up and down before nodding to him. "So who the hell are you?" Logan's voice was harsh and guttural and Lance wasn't surprised, seeing the wounds that covered his body.  
  
"Lance Alvers, agent of Excalibur," he said automatically. Logan looked singularly unimpressed and leaned back down on the floor again.  
  
"I assume you're here to rescue Pietro?" Logan said softly after a few seconds. Lance nodded and Logan grinned humourlessly. "Join the club pal."  
  
"You came here to rescue Pietro?" Lance asked, perplexed as to why a heartless mercenary would try to come and rescue his friend. Logan nodded, his humourless smile still in place.  
  
"I was the one who gave Pietro over to Hydra and allowed them to create their new weapon. They tried to double-cross me, so I came to get revenge. Quite fitting really that I should end up almost dead in a prison cell." Lance wasn't quite sure how to respond to this. After several seconds Lance spoke again.  
  
"So you brought Pietro here?"  
  
"Yep, I took him from the escape pod from Genoa and brought him to these people…"  
  
"Why the hell did you do that!" Lance said angrily, taking an aggressive step forward. Logan's harsh laugh discarded into a coughing spasm, which ended with him coughing up blood.  
  
"I did it because they offered me a lot of money," Logan said simply when his coughing spasm had passed. Lance shook his head in disgust and turned his back on Logan.  
  
"You really are mercenary scum!" Lance said venomously after a brief silence. Logan smiled at Lance's back.  
  
"We all have to earn some money Lance. You might not agree with my methods, but you can hardly talk. Your life is dedicated to destroying the people your country sees as an enemy. I'm not proud of what I did, but I've got live with it. All I can do is try and undo my mistakes."

* * *

Pietro stood before the stasis chamber, staring in horrified fascination. Warren held his breath in anticipation, staring at Viper's dead body lying at Pietro's feet. He prayed that Pietro wouldn't suddenly turn on him - he was under no illusions that he was safe here. However, after a couple of seconds Pietro turned on his heel and strode out of the laboratory. Warren counted to ten before standing up and dusting himself off as best he could. He wasn't completely sure what he was going to do, but as long as he was alive he still had options.  
  
As he passed by Viper's lifeless corpse he stopped and looked down into her wide eyes that stared vacantly up at the ceiling. Warren hadn't been impressed by Viper in the very brief time he'd known her - aside from the fact that she'd tried to have him killed, she'd also come across as a frankly insane psychopath, but Warren wasn't sure that anyone deserved to die like she had. He knelt down next to her and carefully close her lifeless eyes before leaving the lab.

* * *

Pietro stalked through the base, bloodlust raging around his head. He ran into two soldiers standing in the hall and before they knew what was happening he'd grabbed one of them by the arm and ripped it out of their socket. The man cried out in pain and Pietro silenced him by chopping him in the neck. The next guard fumbled with his machine gun, but Pietro had already got the dead man's gun in his hands and opened fire, spraying the corridor with bullets. The other guard convulsed and fell to the floor bleeding from numerous wounds.  
  
Pietro strode on, heading for the heart of Hydra's organisation where he knew the last remaining challenge would be. Reaching the sealed door to the control room he wondered briefly how he would get into the room before the door slid open. Pietro strode in, heedless of who was inside. The control room was surprisingly deserted, except for one man who stood opposite Pietro smiling at him. The man was taller than Pietro, with a strangely glowing red targeted over his right eye and wore a flowing black cloak.  
  
"I wondered when you were going to show up Pietro. You always did think so much of yourself, I knew you wouldn't be able to avoid showing up to fight me here. And that's going to be your downfall."  
  
"You always talked a lot bigger than you could act Gauntlet!" Pietro sneered. The bloodlust and rage that was filling his mind drove all the pain he should have been feeling out of him, replacing it with an overwhelming urge to destroy Gauntlet. With a cry of rage Pietro launched himself at Gauntlet, extending his leg in a flying kick. Gauntlet shifted into a fighting stance and caught Pietro's leg in both hands, pivoting on his feet and throwing Pietro across the room into a control panel.  
  
Pietro pulled himself to his feet with a great effort, a lot of his will to fight having been drained by that violent throw. Gauntlet could see his reluctance to fight and smiled. "I knew that you didn't have the will to put up a good fight."  
  
"Screw you, Gauntlet! I'm going to rip you into dozens of pieces. You are going to wish that you had never met me by the time I'm through with you!" Pietro took a more cautious approach this time and Gauntlet and Pietro circled each other for several seconds before Gauntlet launched a blistering offensive. He threw vicious kicks and punches, some of which Pietro blocked, most of which he didn't. Though Gauntlet's attacks lacked the strength of Pietro's they made it up through technique.  
  
Finally Pietro broke through Gauntlet's incessant attacks and hit Gauntlet with a punch to the sternum, which hurled Gauntlet across the room, slamming into a computer bank that shattered into hundreds of pieces. Gauntlet moaned in pain at the fragments of computer that had penetrated his skin, then let out a gasp of horror when the lights in the room suddenly went off. Pietro moved to stand over him and smiled down at him. "Not so great in reality are you Gauntlet, but then I've always been far greater than you could ever hope to be!"  
  
"Do you realise what you've just destroyed. This thing controls all the power systems in this base. Nothing is operating any more!" Gauntlet sounded almost hysterical, but Pietro ignored him and pulled him to his feet.  
  
"I'm going to enjoy this." Pietro pulled back his fist and drove it with all his force into Gauntlet's throat. Gauntlet's neck snapped with an audible crack and his head lolled at a strange angle. Pietro dropped yet another corpse and a sudden thought struck him. They'd captured Wolverine earlier. Now there would be a real challenge.  
  
Author's Note: Thank you so much for your reviews DaemonRogue 13 and Karakin, they are greatly appreciated! 


	12. Showdown

**

Chapter XII

**  
  
Lance was sitting on the single bed in the cell - Logan lying on the floor, dead or asleep Lance couldn't tell - when the door suddenly slid open and the lights all flickered and suddenly died, plunging the room into sudden darkness. In the hall dim lights winked on casting an eerie glow around the room. "What's going on?" Lance asked, getting cautiously to his feet and peering out into the corridor. All the other cell doors were open, but there was no one in the corridor.  
  
"I'm not sure," Logan's voice startled Lance, as he moved past Lance into the corridor. "Looks like emergency lighting's come on. Means central control must be down. Seems like something is running riot through Hydra's base."  
  
"What could it be?" Lance wondered aloud, wishing that he had some kind of weapon to hand. Logan didn't answer, but instead strode past Lance and set off down the corridor. Shrugging, Lance followed him, hoping that he could find out exactly what had happened to Pietro.

* * *

Warren was trying to find his way out of the twisting maze of corridors and stairs, when the lights all went out and left him standing in the dark. Warren tensed, expecting trouble, but all that happened was emergency lights flickered to life, bathing the corridor in blood red light. He waited for several minutes before continuing down the corridor.  
  
Several metres further on Warren suddenly found himself face-to-face with a middle-aged woman clad in a white lab coat, stained red in the emergency lights. The woman came to a sudden halt and stared at Warren, as if stunned to see a living person in the base. "Wait! I need to know how to get out of here!" Warren said, grabbing her wrist as she turned to run.  
  
The woman struggled futilely, before turning to face Warren again. She looked torn between trying to run again and acquiescing to his demands. Eventually, she nodded jerkily. "Fine. Follow me," she jerked her wrist out of Warren's hand and set off down the corridor so quickly that Warren had to jog to keep up with her. She turned left and right down the corridors, and Warren hoped that she knew where she was going and wasn't leading him into a trap.  
  
Eventually she came to a thick metal door that was open and the woman slowly stepped through the doorway. Warren followed her and found himself in a corridor full of corpses. They were primarily the bodies of Hydra soldiers, all of them killed in various gruesome manners. Warren gingerly stepped over and around the corpses, trying to keep from stepping in the blood that had pooled and congealed on the floor.  
  
Warren surmised that could only have been the Pietro clone who had done this. Shaking his head, he followed the woman along a side corridor. How Viper could have created something that she had so little control over baffled Warren. Admittedly, Viper had seemed like an extremist and most certainly insane, but to create a living weapon that was so unstable seemed to be the work of a madwoman.  
  
So wrapped up in his own thoughts was he, that Warren didn't realise that the woman had vanished until he realised he had reached a dead end. Warren looked around but all the walls were the same faceless steel - there was nowhere for the woman to have disappeared into. The sound of a gun being cocked caught his ear and he slowly turned around to see the woman standing behind him, pistol in her hand.  
  
"You were the cause of all this death!" the woman hissed angrily. "You destroyed everything I worked for and believed in!" She raised her pistol and fired. The bullet hit Warren several inches below his collar bone and spun him around. He slumped against the wall, clutching at his bleeding wound. The woman bared her teeth in a vicious smile and was about to fire again, when a hand grabbed her neck from behind and wrenched her head sharply to one side. There was a wet snap and the woman gave a strangled cry before falling to the ground.  
  
Warren looked up into Logan's eyes and Logan gave him a humourless smile. "Sorry to see you in such a state, Warren." Warren grinned back at him.  
  
"I'm not that bad Logan, ah!" Warren shifted uncomfortably and Logan hurried to kneel by his side. "I don't need you to be a doctor, Logan." Warren tried to laugh, but all that came out was a small trickle of blood. His breath was becoming more laboured by the second. "How does it look?" Warren asked as Logan investigated his wound and shook his head. "That bad, huh?"  
  
"I'm sorry Warren. I don't say this a lot, but I'm really sorry that I dragged you into this mess." Logan said softly, clasping Warren's hand.  
  
"You dragged me into this? I seem to remember it was the other way round," Warren whispered. "I chose to come along on this mission. I needed to see what they'd turned Hydra into. We did a lot of shit in our day, didn't we Logan?" Warren smiled and Logan forced himself to do the same. "But these guys have really messed Hydra up. Finish off destroying it for me, please Logan."  
  
"I will Warren, I promise." Logan stood up, working furiously at the corner of one eye with his hand.  
  
"Logan, one more thing. I don't want you to leave me here to die slowly." Logan shook his head vehemently as Warren said this, but Warren persisted. "Please Logan. I want you to do it."  
  
Logan nodded slowly, tears clearing a path through the grime and blood on his face. He pulled a long-bladed knife from his belt and with a swift movement thrust it into Warren's heart. Warren jerked suddenly, blood spilling from his mouth, before falling back against the wall, the light going out of his eyes. Logan slowly closed Warren's eyes, and wiped his face before tucking the knife back into his belt and straightening up.  
  
Warren walked slowly back to where Lance was waiting at the entrance to the side corridor. Lance looked at him and opened his mouth to ask a question, but Logan forestalled him with a wave of his hand. "Warren Worthington III is dead."  
  
"Worthington? Wasn't he a billionaire businessman?"  
  
"He set up the original Hydra. We'd grown up knowing each other. We used to be as close as brothers." Logan's tone was steely and full of the promise of retribution.  
  
"So, we're going to get out of here now, right?" Lance said hopefully, thinking that he knew all too well what the answer was going to be.  
  
"I promised Warren that I would destroy this base. I can't leave until I've avenged my brother."  
  
"I had a feeling you he was going to say that," Lance muttered under his breath, following Logan down the corridor. They had barely gone five metres when Logan stopped suddenly and Lance almost walked into his back. "What is it?" he whispered, but Logan didn't reply.  
  
Standing opposite them, some ten metres away, was Pietro. Battered and covered in dried blood, with an almost skeletal grin, Lance was horrified by how different he looked since he had last seen him. But, he had been through a lot since then.  
  
"You!" Logan's voice was sibilant hiss.  
  
Pietro's smile curled into a sneer. "I've been waiting to meet you Wolverine. To match my strength against yours. Now seems like as good a place as any, don't you think?"  
  
Logan didn't reply immediately but turned to Lance and said, in a low voice, "get out of here, now!"  
  
"Don't kill him, Logan, I know you're upset about your friend, but killing him won't bring Warren back."  
  
Logan nodded. "I won't kill him, don't worry about that. But you've got to get out of here. I can't fight if I have to worry about you." Lance nodded and ran down the corridor the other way, slipping and stumbling past the blood and corpses. Logan meanwhile turned back to Pietro, who was staring unblinkingly at him. "I'm going to make you pay for what happened to my friends."  
  
"Do you know, I've always admired you Wolverine. Until now that is. I thought you were a killer, immune to pathetic emotion like friendship. But apparently I was wrong."  
  
"I really couldn't give a shit what you think. You're not human, you're just a living weapon. And I'm going to utterly destroy you."  
  
"You know, it's funny that you should call me a living weapon, because I have definitely heard that you were the original test dummy for human augmentation. Kind of like the kettle calling the pot black don't you think?"  
  
Logan didn't answer, instead he launched himself at Pietro. Moving faster than the normal eye could see. But Pietro's eyes were no longer normal, and he could follow Warren's every movement. Both men moved faster than the eye could see, Warren tapping into reserves of strength he hadn't used for years, Pietro so augmented that he always used them. After several furious seconds of fighting the two men broke apart, both breathing heavily.  
  
"I guess the stories are true," Pietro admitted. "Trouble is, I'm the new model and you're long out of date." 

Author's Note: Thank you again for your continuing reviews Karakin and DaemonRogue 13, they are greatly appreciated! Yet more fighting coming up and trust me, the body count is going to get even higher.


	13. Endgame

**

Chapter XIII

**  
Lance stumbled past corpses slick with sticky blood. He wasn't watching where he placed his feet, and thus he caught his foot on one of the corpses' legs and tripped forwards, his hand landing in a pool of blood. Shocked, Lance leapt to his feet with a yell and desperately wiped his hand on his trouser leg.  
  
Lance shook his head angrily and continued on down the hall. He had to get out of this hell hole before his luck ran out and he ended up dead like so many others. Unfortunately he had no idea how to get out and therefore he ended up walking down yet another identical looking metallic corridor, where he came across four guards who had been brutally slaughtered. Gingerly stepping past them, Lance saw a large doorway at the end of the corridor. Intrigued as to what was through the door, and hoping that it was an exit, Lance jogged forward eager yet cautious at the same time.

* * *

Logan and Pietro were going at it once again, fists and feet flying faster than the human eye could follow. Pietro's fists were powered by an almost inhuman strength, but Logan had the advantage of experience. Unfortunately, Logan could feel himself tiring rapidly as the fight continued, while Pietro seemed to feeling no adverse effects. The two broke apart and retreated a few metres, Logan panting with exertion.  
  
"What's wrong old man, getting tired?" Pietro said with a sneer. "But then, you never did have a chance to beat me." Despite how much he hated to admit it, Logan knew Pietro was right. He was utterly worn out, both physically and mentally and this fight only had one conceivable outcome. Still, he could try and take Pietro with him.  
  
As Pietro launched himself forward, Logan grabbed him and wrapped his arms tightly around him. Pietro tried to shift him, but Logan's grip was like steel. "Have you gone insane old man?" he raged angrily, and Logan smiled wolfishly.  
  
"When they augmented me, they put a very special security feature inside me. They put a bomb inside me, which would be activated when a certain code phrase was spoken. Before I killed those scientists, I forced the code phrase out of them." Logan looked into Pietro's eyes, and saw that they contained a glimmer of fear. "_They all came home._"  
  
For a moment nothing happened and Pietro grinned, half in relief and half in anger. Then there an explosion tore through Logan and Pietro, filling the corridor with smoke and throwing the two bodies several metres backwards. Logan's chest had been torn apart by the bomb and he was resting against a wall, his eyes closed peacefully. Pietro could feel his life blood draining from his body, and he cursed any and everyone he could that he had been robbed of his destiny so unfairly. Forcing himself to push past the pain, he tried to use his left hand to push himself up and realised with a stab of terror that his hand had been torn apart by the explosion.  
  
Seeing the bloodied stub of his hand made all the pain come crashing back to him and the shock suddenly set in. Pietro's head fell back against the floor and he stared at the ceiling with dimming eyesight. It was so unfair, that he had been cheated out of everything he should have had. How could he have been beaten by someone who was so vastly inferior to him? That was the last thought he had before unconsciousness overtook him.

* * *

Lance stepped through the doorway and looked around slowly. The room he had entered was large and dark - it looked like it had once been a laboratory, before it had been destroyed by someone. Lance was about to leave, when he heard the sound of someone walking towards him. He tensed, wondering what he could do if it was some soldiers but when he saw who it was, his jaw dropped.  
  
Pietro walked unsteadily towards Lance, dressed in ill fitting, slightly damp grey coveralls. Lance shook his head, wondering if he might have suffered a mild concussion somewhere along the line, but as far as he could tell, Pietro was real. As Pietro approached him, he looked up and saw Lance for the first time. "Lance! Is that you?" Pietro asked in a tired voice.  
  
"It's definitely me, but who are you? I just saw you fighting with Wolverine about five minutes ago." Lance took a step backwards, still not sure what to make of this new discovery.  
  
"I have no idea what you are talking about, Lance, I feel like I've just woken up from a really, really long sleep. Where are we, by the way?" Pietro seemed to really notice his surroundings for the first time when he asked this.  
  
"We're in Hydra's base, in Russia. You were brought here by Wolverine from Genoa and made into Hydra's ultimate weapon. But how can there be two of you?"  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about, but do you know how to get out of here?"  
  
"Not quite, but I think I can find a way out." Pietro was only a few feet away from Lance now, and Lance looked deep into Pietro's eyes for several long seconds. "I don't know what I saw back there with Wolverine, but you definitely are Pietro. I've missed you so much buddy," Lance suddenly embraced Pietro, who seemed taken aback and gingerly patted Lance on the back. "Let's go," Lance let go of Pietro and led him back down the corridor he had just come down.  
  
As they walked down the corridor Lance pulled a small device, about the size of a pager, from his belt and activated it. That would send a signal to the Excalibur agents stationed in Moscow to come and pick them up and take them back to England.  
  
It took the pair of them about twenty minutes to reach the exit to the Hydra base, stepping over and around tens of corpses as they did so. When they reached the exit the camouflage was already removed and it was easy to walk out into the cold Russian night. They were waiting only about five minutes before a single bladed helicopter touched down about ten metres away from them and they both boarded it. The helicopter took them to Moscow, where there was a plane waiting to take them back to London.  
  
Pietro slept almost the entire journey and Lance watched him with a worried expression. Pietro looked thinner and a lot paler than usual and Lance wondered what exactly Hydra had done to him. Still, the Excalibur doctors would doubtlessly be able to diagnose any problems and help him to recover from them.  
  
Before they landed, Xavier called him and asked for a brief status report on the mission. Lance told him what had happened as best he could, and told him that he had managed to rescue Pietro. Xavier congratulated him before signing off, and Lance could imagine that Xavier could hardly wait to be able to debrief Pietro.  
  
As the plane landed, Pietro jerked back to consciousness and Lance grinned at him. "Tired?"  
  
"You have no idea," Pietro grinned back. "So I imagine Xavier's waiting back home to squeeze all the secrets out of me?"  
  
"Standard mission debriefing," Lance said in what he hoped was a convincing tone. From Pietro's wry smile, he guessed he'd failed. When the plane landed Lance and Pietro were greeted by a quartet of armed guards who escorted Pietro to a waiting car, which took him directly to Excalibur headquarters. Lance took longer to reach headquarters and when he got there, he was sent straight to see Xavier.  
  
The debriefing took less time than usual - Xavier merely asked him to recall all the major details of the Hydra operation, and Lance told him everything he knew. After the briefing Xavier leaned back in his chair. "While you were on your way home, we sent operatives into the base to investigate it. We found the dead bodies of Warren Worthington and Wolverine there, but we found no trace of anyone like the person you described had fought with Wolverine."  
  
"Pietro, you mean?"  
  
"That is what you told me." Xavier pointed out.  
  
"I know I saw Pietro in that corridor and I know he started fighting with Wolverine. Only, I could swear that he was a different person from the Pietro who came back with me." Xavier raised one eyebrow sceptically. "I know you don't believe me, but it's the truth. It's like there were two Pietros in that base."  
  
"Well, I will see what Pietro himself says. I've had the doctors checking him, and now he's on his way up here. Ah, Pietro, do take a seat." Lance turned and saw Pietro standing in the doorway, clad in a set of beige fatigues.  
  
Author's Note: Thanks a lot for your reviews again Karakin and DaemonRogue 13, they mean a lot to me! 


	14. Return Home

**

Chapter XIV

**

  
Pietro sat down next to Lance and looked at Xavier expectantly. Xavier scanned his eyes through a page long report before looking up at Pietro. "Welcome home," he said warmly, extending his hand, which Pietro shook.  
  
"It's good to be back," Pietro said with a small grin. Xavier leaned back in his chair, suddenly all business.  
  
"I've seen all the reports of what occurred at the Hydra facility in Russia. The only person who hasn't been debriefed and submitted a report is you, Pietro. I wanted to hear your report face-to-face."  
  
Pietro was silent for a while, gathering his thoughts before he began to speak. "My last memory, before I met Lance in the Hydra facility, was in Genoa. I remember fighting Cain, and I remember just getting to the escape pod. I thought I was dying, and I lost consciousness. While I was asleep I had some fleeting dreams of a dark chamber, a metal bed, men standing over me in white coats with needles and it seems real to me, but I can't be sure. It could just have been a dream."  
  
Xavier nodded as Pietro related his story to him. When Pietro finished, Xavier steepled his fingers. "So you don't remember anything that happened in the Hydra facility?"  
  
"The first real memory I have of the facility is meeting Lance in the remains of the laboratory. I don't remember arriving there, or anything else."  
  
"This is a report that we received during the time you were in the Hydra facility," Xavier handed Pietro a sheet, which he read quickly, before looking back at Xavier.  
  
"This says that I was involved in an assassination." Xavier nodded. "That's impossible. I've never been to this place in Russia before, and I've certainly never killed an innocent girl. You know I gave up assassinations when I joined Excalibur."  
  
"I know that, but eye-witness reports said that it was you. Have you got any idea how this might have been possible?"  
  
"No. I don't remember ever being there or doing that, but the reports don't lie. Could it have been that I had my memory altered?" Pietro suggested.  
  
"I wondered if that could have been the case, and so I asked the Excalibur psycho-analysis team to examine you. Their reports indicate that your memory is pretty much intact - no artificial memory alteration has occurred."  
  
"Then I am at a loss to explain the reports," Pietro said, shaking his head. "It could simply have been someone disguised as me."  
  
"If it was they must have been surgically altered to look like you, the likeness was so similar. That is not an impossible explanation, but it is an unlikely one. Still, the psycho-analysis and medical teams have both declared you fit, so I suggest you return home and get some rest and recovery. You'll need to return for a check-up in three days time, but until then you can stay at home." Pietro got to his feet, shook hands with Xavier and Lance before leaving. Lance waited for him to close the door before speaking.  
  
"You don't trust him." His tone was not accusatory, but factual.  
  
"No," Xavier agreed. "Something really doesn't feel right about this whole affair. Your own report and the report of the eye-witnesses at the assassination would appear to indicate that there is something going on that we are unaware of. But there was no evidence of anyone else who could have been mistaken for Pietro in the Hydra facility, and Forge has assured me that there was nothing wrong with Pietro physically or mentally. It is possible that he was administered some kind of drug, which allowed Hydra to control him, but if that did happen then there is no trace of it. We will keep Pietro under serveillance for some time to see if there are any lingering effects of his time with Hydra. I want you to be in charge of the team that will respond to any emergencies relating to Pietro."  
  
"Me?" Lance said in surprise.  
  
"You have probably the best experience of dealing with Pietro, and this knowledge could become invaluable should Pietro display any signs of being under the control of Hydra. Here is all the information you will need." Xavier handed Lance a file, which Lance took before standing. "I suggest that you get some rest as well. If anything happens, you'll get a call." Lance nodded and left Xavier's study, leaving the man staring at his opposite wall, deep in contemplation.

* * *

Pietro walked through London, staring wide-eyed at buildings he knew he'd seen before, yet somehow it was like he was seeing everything for the first time again. The surging crowd of people pushed past him, often barging into him and glancing at him with annoyance. Pietro ignored these people, content to follow where his feet took him, not realising that he was walking a route he had used many times before.  
  
When he reached the docks around the Thames, he stared at the river in wonder. He knew he'd seen it before - he'd lived in London practically all his life - yet he couldn't remember ever having seen it. It was highly disconcerting and annoying, like when you know you know the answer to the question, but the word just refuses to come to mind.  
  
The Excalibur agent that had been dispatched to watch Pietro was a young woman by the name of Rhane Sinclair, who was on her first real mission alone. She was about to report back to base, when a sudden noise behind her made her jump. Turning to see what had made the noise, she saw a vision that looked as though it had come from hell itself. She was about to scream when a hand was clamped over her mouth and she felt several inches of cold steel puncture her chest and punch into her heart. She jerked suddenly, blood dribbling from her mouth, before the hand holding her upright released its grip and she collapsed to the floor.  
  
At Excalibur headquarters, a flashing light on one of the control panels attracted Forge's attention. Frowning, he sat down at the panel determined to try and fix whatever was wrong with it, before realising what it meant. Cursing, he leapt to his feet and ran out of the control room to speak to Xavier. The agent watching Pietro was dead, which could well mean that Pietro was still under Hydra control.

* * *

Kitty picked up her two bags from the luggage carousel and walked slowly through the departures gate. The trip she had been on with Remy and Rogue had been great - the hotel had been five star, the weather had been excellent and the scenery amazing - but she hadn't enjoyed a single minute of it. All she could keep thinking about was the fact that she was never going to see Pietro again.  
  
His death had been a terrible blow to her and she had never really recovered from it, despite the brave face she put on when she met her friends. Sometimes she still woke up expecting him to be lying next to her before remembering that he was dead. Outside Heathrow airport she got into a taxi and directed it to take her back to her apartment. She stared out of the window at the buildings that flashed past, but all she could think about was Pietro.

* * *

Pietro found himself in a construction site - it was empty today, obviously the worker's day off - that was next to the river. He walked across the dirty ground until he reached the water's edge and looked out across the river, wondering what exactly had happened to him after Genoa. Had Hydra been able to control him somehow, to make him carry out that assassination? Was he a time bomb waiting to go off when Hydra chose? It would be a fitting act of revenge.  
  
Pietro turned to leave the area, but when he turned around he saw something that shocked him to the core. Standing opposite him was a person who looked just like him, except that he was missing a hand, and he was covered in blood and grime. There was a long-bladed knife in his hand, slick with fresh blood, and his eyes were filled with the light of madness.  
  
As he looked at the man, suddenly understanding dawned on Pietro of how the eye-witnesses at the assassination could have been fooled. Somehow, Hydra had created a look-a-like of him, and used him for their missions.  
  
"I've been waiting to find you for a long time," the look-a-like said. Amazingly his voice sounded identical to Pietro's own voice. "I've been waiting to wipe you off the face of the earth, to destroy the imperfections you represent!"  
  
"What are you talking about?" Pietro asked, taken aback by the hatred he detected in the voice of a man he had never met before.  
  
"The time for talking is over!" the other Pietro ignored his question. "I have hunted you all the way from Russia, and now it is time for my revenge."  
  
Author's Note: Thank you all for your reviews - don't worry Karakin, it's not over yet, I just wanted to get the story moving a bit faster. The reunion with Kitty will be coming up soon JC, although it's funny you should mention killing off more people... chapter 15 will be up as soon as possible, until then keep reading, reviewing and enjoying! 


	15. Pietro vs Pietro

**

Chapter XV

**  
The two Pietros faced other for no more than a heartbeat, but to Pietro it felt like an eternity. Then he didn't have time to think of anything except his own survival as his doppelganger leapt at him, knife outstretched. Pietro sidestepped the knife, but as he did so the other Pietro changed the knife's direction and embedded it in Pietro's right palm. Pain unlike any he had felt for a long time stabbed through Pietro and he fell to his knees clutching his hand.  
  
The other Pietro grinned as he watched Pietro staring in horror at the knife that had plunged through his palm and lashed out with a kick that took Pietro in the ribs and knocked him backwards onto the dusty ground. As his double advanced on him Pietro realised that if he didn't put up a better fight, he was going to die. With that in mind he gripped the knife's handle, gritted his teeth and wrenched the blade out of his hand. The pain was almost unbearable, but Pietro pushed past that and lunged at his attacker.  
  
Taken off guard, the other Pietro couldn't get fully out of the way of the blade and it caught him on the leg, tearing a gash in his trousers and drawing blood. Pietro got to his feet and faced his opponent, who's smile had been replaced by an feral grimace of rage. Pietro had no idea who his opponent was, or how he looked like an identical copy of him, but he knew that he was going to have to fight as well as he could, or he was going to die. The sheer speed and strength of his double was far greater than his, but he seemed to be teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown, so if Pietro could just keep the mental edge he might be able to win.  
  
Suddenly, his double was on the attack again and Pietro was desperately blocking and ducking his blows. His double reached out and grabbed the fist clenched around the knife's hilt and forced Pietro's fingers to open and the knife to fall to the floor. Devoid of a weapon, Pietro desperately fought back as best he could, landing a lucky shot on his double's jaw that staggered him, and then Pietro sprinted away from the fight, towards a half-built tower on the riverside. His double was just too strong and fast for him to beat in his weakened state, so his only option was to run and try and lose his pursuer amongst the twisting lanes amongst the docks.

* * *

Lance was walking down the road back to his apartment in a pensive mood, when his pager went off. He pulled it out of his belt and glanced at it, and felt a surge of dread shoot through his heart. It was from Excalibur and it told him that the agent shadowing Pietro was dead - likely thanks to Pietro himself. It seemed that despite the doctors' analyses Pietro was still controlled by Hydra, either that or he'd just gone insane.  
  
Lance set off back to Excalibur headquarters at a run, praying that the answer to the agent's death was something other than Pietro having killed her. He burst through the doors and Scott directed him to the briefing room. There was met by Xavier, Forge and another of the Excalibur agents. "Thank you for coming so promptly Lance," Xavier said, as Forge nodded to him.  
  
"What's happened?" Lance asked, already certain that he knew the answer but refusing to believe it until he heard it from Xavier himself.  
  
"We detailed on of our agents to shadow Pietro, to monitor his behaviour. Shortly after you left, we received information that our agent had been killed. While it is possible that this incident has nothing to do with Pietro, we cannot take that chance so we are sending you and your team to investigate it." Lance nodded resignedly and sat down as Xavier explained what had happened.  
  
"Our agent, Rhane Sinclair, had followed Pietro to the riverside here," Xavier indicated an area on the banks of the River Thames. "She was due to report in at the same time that she was killed. So we have now lost contact with Pietro, who is potentially under the control of Hydra. We have notified the police, who are out looking for him and as soon as they find him they will report back to us. As soon as we determine his location, you will be informed and you are to proceed directly to his location. Before then, you are to proceed to the place where agent Sinclair was murdered."  
  
"And when we locate Pietro, what are we supposed to do?" Lance enquired.  
  
"You are to subdue him, peacefully if at all possible, and to bring him back here for questioning. If it was the case that agent Sinclair was killed by someone other than Pietro, then we will of course release Pietro after a short questioning session. However, should it be the case that Pietro is indeed under the control of Hydra and you are unable to subdue him and he is a threat to more civilians then you have permission to stop him. Permanently."  
  
"You mean kill him."  
  
"Yes," Xavier said uncomfortably. "Lance, this is Sam Guthrie - he's one of our top marksmen. He'll be accompanying you, in case you can't subdue Pietro." Sam stepped forward and extended his hand, which Lance shook unenthusiastically.  
  
"It won't come to that, sir," Lance assured Xavier, who nodded his head.  
  
"I hope it won't as well Lance, but we need to be prepared for all contingencies. Now, you, Sam and Forge are going to head to the docks to investigate agent Sinclair's death. You will be informed when we have a location for Pietro. Good luck," Xavier clapped a hand on Lance's shoulder and Lance nodded.  
  
"Don't worry sir, we will bring Pietro back alive."

* * *

Kitty looked around her apartment. It seemed to have got even messier while she had been away, although she didn't have a clue how that was possible. After Pietro's funeral, she had refused to sort through anything that belonged to him and consequently the apartment was almost identical to how it had been before his death. It looked as though the inhabitants had vanished in the middle of their daily routines - half-eaten food was still out, Pietro's clothing was laid out over one of the chairs and a book Kitty had been reading was open on one of the work surfaces.  
  
Kitty dumped her bags on the floor in the bedroom and set about hunting for a drink. She eventually found a half-drunk bottle of white wine at the back of the fridge and she opened it and poured herself a glass. She finished it quickly and poured herself another, which she spent a little more time savouring. She had to start tidying up, that much was self-evident, but if she did it would bring back so many painful memories. Still, it was probably better to get it over and done with, rather than waiting and then bringing all the pain rushing back to the surface.  
  
Finishing the last of the wine, Kitty put her glass in the sink and moved into her bedroom to start sorting out the mess that was her apartment.

* * *

Pietro had climbed almost to the top of the half-built tower, and when he allowed himself to glance downwards he saw that his double was closing with him fast. Pietro had hoped that he would be able to shake his double off his tail in the alleys but his double had proved to be too fast for him, and his only escape seemed to be upwards. Using the last of his strength he pulled himself onto the roof of the tower and for a moment allowed himself to marvel at the glorious view. From the roof he could see practically all of London, and it was an amazing sight. Then he came back to reality and realised he had to get away, now.  
  
He hurried over to the other side of the roof, but all he found there was a very, very long drop. A quick investigation of the other sides showed the same thing - he had managed to trap himself on the top of an incomplete tower with a psychopathic look-a-like who wanted to kill him. Today was turning into a really bad day.  
  
He moved to the edge that he had climbed up, but there was no sign of his double who had been following him up. Pietro wondered momentarily if his double might have lost his grip, but he dismissed that idea as there was no body at the foot of the tower. A metallic clanging behind him made him almost fall off the roof, and when he turned around he saw the other Pietro standing on the opposite side of the roof, smiling across at him.  
  
Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone who reviewed last chapter, you are both too kind! 


	16. And then there was one

**

Chapter XVI

**   
Lance closed the door to his car and moved over to where the police had marked out the area of Rhane Sinclair's death, Forge and Sam just behind him, and wondered whether it had really been Pietro that could have killed her. Lance had only met Rhane once before, and he'd only spoken about half a dozen words to her, but she had seemed a nice enough person and very eager to get into the field, and now she was dead. Briefly Lance wondered about the tactical sense of sending a rookie agent on this mission, but then, he thought, who could have realised it would turn out like this. Even Lance couldn't be certain that he would have been able to survive if Pietro tried to kill him. 

Forge whistled softly as he read the medical report that had been handed to him by the police officer who was standing guard at the crime scene. "Brutal killing," he said, handing the file over to Lance. "Poor girl never had a chance. Definitely a professional job, could well have been Pietro. Although he would have to have got a weapon from somewhere."

"What?" Lance looked up from the report.

"Says that Sinclair was killed by a stab wound - Pietro didn't come into Excalibur HQ with a weapon, we scanned him for one before we let him in. So he must have found a weapon somewhere along the way."

"Could he have done that?" Sam asked, his eyes flickering over the nearby buildings as if he expected Pietro to burst out of one at any time.

"It's certainly possible," Forge said, and Lance nodded. "But it would have been difficult to do so in such a short time."

"But that doesn't rule him out," Lance reminded them, despite how much he hated to do it. He handed the report back to the policeman and turned to the others. "We need to look for any clue as to where Pietro might have gone. Forge, you stay here are check the crime scene, Sam and I will go and see if we can pick up Pietro's trail." Lance led Sam further into the docks, his hand hovering over his pistol and his eyes constantly scanning for any sign of movement.

* * *

The two Pietro's stood facing each other across the roof for only about ten seconds, but that time seemed to stretch for an eternity. At this height, Pietro felt much more nervous than he had done on the ground. Now there really wasn't anywhere to run - it was do or die on the top of this tower. The other Pietro advanced upon him, his movements measured and dangerous. Pietro moved forwards, away from the edge of the roof, and took up a martial arts stance. 

This time the first move was made by Pietro, who lunged forwards with his fist, before bringing his leg around in a roundhouse kick. The other Pietro, having easily dodged the first blow was taken off guard by the kick and it caught him square in the chest. Pietro followed it up with a rain of blows aimed at his foe's face and neck. The other Pietro managed to block and dodge some of the blows, but inch by inch he was forced back, until he was almost at the edge of the roof. Then, as Pietro lashed out with his left fist, his opponent caught his fist in his hand and wrenched it sharply. Pietro cried out as an audible crack echoed in the silence on the rooftop, and fell to his knees clutching his broken wrist.

Grinning maliciously, the other Pietro kicked Pietro hard in the gut, sending him sprawling on the floor and gasping for breath after being winded. Seizing the opportunity to cause his opponent pain, the doppelganger Pietro landed several hard stomps on Pietro's gut before he could roll out of the way and get unsteadily to his feet.

As soon as he did so, he was on the defensive. After blocking for almost a minute, his guard was broken by a blow that almost sent him over the building edge. His opponent stood over him in triumph and at the moment Pietro found himself overcome with rage. He had not got back to England just so that he could get killed by a maniac that looked identical to him! As his double slammed his heel down at Pietro's fingers, intending to break them, Pietro leapt to his feet and hit his double in his unprotected crotch.

Taken off guard, his double clutched his crotch and staggered backwards, allowing Pietro to launch a powerful offensive, throwing a flurry of blows that forced his opponent backwards across the roof, until they were almost at the opposite side. Sensing the kill, Pietro intensified his attack, until his opponent was teetering on the edge of the rooftop.

* * *

Kitty sighed softly as she closed the lid on another packing case. She had cleaned out most of Pietro's clothes and personal effects from their bedroom, and now it seemed incredibly empty. Picking up the case, she placed it by the wall with the other two - she would decide what to do with them after she had finished. 

Looking around, a flood of memory came rushing back to her - Pietro proposing to her, their first anniversary, the first time they ever met, Pietro telling her that he would never leave her. She'd always known that he could be snatched away from her at any time, but she hadn't been ready for it - the pain was just too intense for her to be able to get over him. Pietro really had been the one for her, the one that she had known she had wanted to spend all her life with, ever since they first met. How she could go on without him, she didn't know.

* * *

Lance and Sam, moved slowly through the buildings on the dockside, Sam's sniper rifle in his hand, Lance's hand inches away from his pistol. As they walked on, Sam suddenly noticed something at the top of a half-built tower and pointed this out to Lance. They could just barely make out two figures, moving at fast speeds, at the top of the tower and suddenly one of them disappeared from the roof. 

Sam trained his sniper rifle on the roof, and nodded to Lance. "It's Pietro, alright. What do we do now?"

"What's he doing?"

Sam narrowed his eye as he looked down the scope before saying, "seems like he's coming down the building."

Lance pulled out his mobile and punched a number into it. "Forge, it's Lance. I need you to get over here now." He turned to Sam again. "I need to go and speak to Xavier again. I want you and Forge to take Pietro to Kitty Pryde's apartment. Forge knows where it is."

Sam nodded and Lance ran off, Forge arriving some seconds later. Pietro had descended from the tower by now, and limped over to them, his face and clothes covered in blood. This was Sam's first face-to-face meeting with Pietro, and as he looked him up and down he was impressed, despite the fact that he seemed to cradle hisleft hand to his chest.

"Pietro," Forge said in a neutral voice, his hand hovering over his gun.

"Hello Forge," Pietro smiled slightly. "It's good to see you again."

"You too," Forge said unconvincingly. "You want to explain what's just been going on?"

"I was walking home, when I came here. I was attacked by someone who looked like my identical double, but I managed to kill him up there," Pietro nodded back at the tower.

"So you don't know anything about the murder of Rahne Sinclair?" Pietro shook his head blankly.

"We've been told to take him back to Kitty Pryde's apartment." Sam said to Forge, who nodded.

"Guess we'd better get going then." Forge led Pietro off to the car, Sam following Pietro, pistol in hand. There was something unsettling about Pietro, like he didn't really have complete control over himself. And it was quite a coincidence that he had been attacked by his 'double', because now he had a perfect alibi.

It took them almost twenty-five minutes to drive over to Kitty's apartment and the car was silent as they drove, every man within it engrossed deeply in their own thoughts. As they stopped and Pietro got out, Forge spoke up.

"Do you want us to go in with you?"

"Thanks, but no. I think this is something I need to do on my own." Pietro smiled slightly again, and a brief shiver ran up Sam's spine at the sight of that smile.

"Well, good luck. And Pietro, welcome back." Forge shook Pietro's hand before the door was closed and the car pulled out into the traffic. After several minutes, Sam voiced his thoughts. "Is it just me, or did Pietro seem a bit weird to you?"

"Not really, it's probably just the fact that he's just got back from some highly traumatic events. He's a really good guy once you get to know him." Sam nodded and sat back. He'd just have to take Forge's word for it.

Pietro stood outside the door to his old apartment and took a deep breath. He raised his right hand to knock, but before he could the door was opened by a Kitty. She stopped suddenly, then stared at his face, the bag in her hand falling to the floor. They stared at each other for a long time, before Kitty suddenly swept Pietro up in a huge embrace.

Author's Note: I am so sorry for the HUGE delay, I've just been inundated with work. I promise that it will not happen again! Thank you so much for your reviews karakin and DaemonRogue 13, I really don't deserve such loyal fans. I promise that the next chapter will be updated a lot sooner!


	17. The Final Act

**

Chapter XVII

**

Author's Note: This is it, the last chapter!!! Thank you so much for your reviews for last chapter Karakin and DaemonRogue 13, and thank you for all your support during this fic. You really have been incredibly loyal to my fic and you truly have been my inspiration. I hope that you have enjoyed reading 'Tomorrow Never Dies' as much as I have enjoyed writing it, despite my terrible attempts at keeping deadlines! All that remains is to say, for the last time, I hope you enjoy this chapter...

Kitty and Pietro finally broke apart, gazing into each other's eyes for a long moment before Kitty pulled Pietro into the apartment. They were both speechless for a long time, Kitty too overwhelmed with emotion to speak, her only outward sign of emotion were the tears welling in her eyes; Pietro had an expression of wonder bordering on shock.

Pietro opened his mouth to say something but before he could Kitty rushed across the room and kissed him passionately. Pietro was slightly taken aback by this but he soon settled into the kiss and when they broke apart he smiled at Kitty. "What… how, how are you back?"

"It's a long story," Pietro said, grinning as he sat down at the table. "Most of it is really hazy - I can't remember much of what went on over the past couple of months. The most recent memory I've got is being found in the Hydra complex in Russia by Lance. I came here to you as soon as I got back to England."

"I can't believe you are still alive. When I heard that you were dead, I didn't think that I could go on living. It's been so hard without you, but now that you're back I know we can start our lives together again."

"Believe me Kitty, there is nothing I'd rather do than start my life again." There was something about the way Pietro said this that made Kitty pause, but she dismissed it in her happiness over Pietro's safe return. She gave Pietro another quick hug before going into the bedroom to unpack the cases with Pietro's clothes in.

* * *

Sam and Forge pulled up outside the Excalibur headquarters and got out of the car. Forge nodded to Sam, "that was a pretty good mission - we didn't have to kill anyone or even look very far for Pietro." 

"I guess so," Sam said doubtfully. "It's just that something didn't feel right about the whole thing. Pietro seemed to be very acting strangely, and don't you think it was a little too convenient that there was no trace of this 'identical double' that Pietro said he was fighting?"

Forge shrugged. "Maybe, but I couldn't see anything weird about Pietro. You sure know how to ruin a good mood don't you?" Forge grinned as they walked through the doors into the lobby. "You have to focus on the negative side of things don't you."

"Xavier needs to see you two," Scott said as they passed him.

"How come?" Forge asked as they headed for the stairs.

"No idea, but I think Lance is with him." Forge grumbled under his breath as they walked up the stairs to the briefing room. When they pushed the door open they saw Xavier and Lance waiting for them, grim expressions on their faces.

"Sam, Forge, we know where Pietro is," Xavier said as they sat down.

Forge raised an eyebrow and looked at Sam with an expression of bewildered amusement. "So do we, he's at Kitty Pryde's apartment."

Now it was Lance and Xavier's turn to look bemused. "No he's not. He's been sighted about two miles away from that place by a member of the police."

Forge shook his head. "We took Pietro to Kitty's apartment just after we met him at the docks."

"You told us to do that," Sam reminded Lance.

"I know I did, but when I got back here, we got a report of a sighting, so we wanted to know what exactly had happened? How did Pietro get away?" Lance asked.

"He didn't," Forge said, getting exasperated by Lance and Xavier's refusal to accept the truth. "We took him to Kitty's apartment, dropped him off and came straight back here."

Lance and Xavier looked at each other, and Lance stood up. "I think we should go and check this out, sir."

"I agree," Xavier said, nodding. "Something doesn't seem to be right."

"Pietro did mention that he had been fighting a person he described as his 'identical double'," Sam pointed out, and Xavier and Lance turned to look at him.

"An identical double, that could explain everything," Xavier muttered to Lance.

"I know, but which one is on the streets and which one is at Kitty's apartment?"

"I don't know, you're going to have to go and find out."

"Right, let's go." Lance led Sam and Forge out of the headquarters and to his car, which was parked at the front of the building. "Be alert, we don't know what we might find at Kitty's apartment. We might stumble across something very weird, but whatever happens keep your head and follow my lead, got it?" Sam and Forge both nodded before Lance unlocked his car and the got in, and set off for Kitty's apartment.

* * *

Kitty had just finished unpacking one of the suitcases, so she went back into the kitchen where Pietro was scrutinising a row of photographs closely. They were pictures of Remy Le Beau's wedding that they had attended all those months ago. It felt like a couple of years had passed since then, but Kitty would have been surprised if a single year had passed. 

As she entered the kitchen, Pietro turned to look at her, his face clouded with a mixture of anger and puzzlement. "What are these pictures?" he demanded angrily.

Kitty was taken aback somewhat by the question and failed to answer for several seconds. "They're pictures of Remy and Marie's wedding, remember?" she spoke slowly and deliberately, as if she was speaking to an unusually stupid person. Pietro turned and stared at the pictures with almost a wild look in his eye, before picking one of them up. It was a picture of Pietro, Kitty, Remy and Marie at the reception, that Kitty had always been particularly fond of, and had had framed in silver.

"I have never been there," he said quietly. "I don't know these people." Kitty wondered if Pietro had sustained some kind of mental damage while he had been away, because that statement made utterly no sense.

"Of course you know them, that's Remy and Marie." Kitty said evenly. Pietro weighed the picture in his hand and then threw it onto the floor, before brutally trampling it beneath his feet. Kitty watched the senseless violence in shock, before Pietro turned to her again, a look of horror on his face. He sagged down into a nearby seat, his hands shaking, before looking up at Kitty again.

"I'm so sorry about that Kitty, I, I don't know what came over me. Like I said, my memory is hazy, sometimes I can't even remember what went on before my captivity."

Kitty hurried over to him and took his hands in hers. "It's okay Pietro, it's okay. You've been through terrible things, but it's okay. I'm here for you, and I'll always be here for you."

At that exact moment the door burst open and Kitty whirled around to see who had come barging in. When she saw who it was, her heart leapt into her mouth. Pietro stood in the door, covered in blood and bruises, and looking pale and haggard. She turned and looked at the Pietro that was sitting next to her, then turned and looked at the one who had burst in. They both looked identical - it was the weirdest thing she had ever seen.

"Kitty," the Pietro at the door gasped, breathing heavily. "That, that's an imposter… Hydra agent."

"No, you're the Hydra agent," the Pietro next to her said, leaping up. "Don't listen to him Kitty, I'm Pietro."

Kitty backed away, her eyes flicking from one to the other as she headed towards the pistol that was hidden in a drawer. Excalibur had provided in case of emergency after she had been kidnapped by Erik Lensherr, and Kitty thought that this was pretty much an emergency. She pulled it out of the drawer faster than she had ever done before and pointed it at both Pietros.

"Don't move," she said with a lot less confidence than she had hoped. The Pietro in the door looked taken aback, whilst the Pietro sitting down stood up, and stepped away from the table.

"Kitty, don't shoot me - it's me, Pietro," the one who had just stood up said. Kitty shook her head, refusing to believe either of them, when the one in the doorway took a step forward.

"Stay where you are!" she ordered, and the Pietro in the doorway froze on the spot.

"It's me Kitty," he said. "I've finally come back." Kitty moved her gaze from one Pietro to another, shaking her head all the time until suddenly she spotted the ring she had given Pietro on their engagement on the finger of the Pietro by the table. She instantly moved her pistol to cover the Pietro by the door, her finger hovering just above the trigger. "Don't shoot me, Kitty," he said, and took another step forwards. Her finger tightened around the trigger, and before she knew what she had happened, the Pietro in the doorway had collapsed, blood streaming from his chest.

Kitty stared in horror at the Pietro bleeding to death in the doorway, then turned to look at the other Pietro. A hideous smile twisted his face, and he laughed at Kitty's expression of horror. "Finally, my imperfect fake has been destroyed. And by the woman he loved, how tragic."

"What are you talking about?" Kitty asked in shock, as the Pietro advanced on her.

"He was the Pietro you knew and loved. The Pietro that was an inferior copy of me. And now he has been destroyed." Kitty raised her gun to fire again, but before she could the Pietro was beside her and knocked the gun from her hand with a flick of his wrist. It skidded along the floor to rest next to the other Pietro's body.

"What are you?"

"I am perfect," the Pietro whispered, before grabbing her throat with his right hand and tightening his grip. Kitty desperately gasped for breath and he smiled sadistically at her struggles. "I have despised my imperfect copy for a long time, and you have no idea what joy I get from seeing him destroyed. The fact that you did it only adds to the enjoyment."

Kitty could feel darkness setting in, and knew that soon she would be dead, when suddenly the Pietro's head seemed to explode, like a rotten fruit. His grip slackened, and he slumped to the ground. Kitty fell to her knees, coughing and gasping for air, and looked up to see the other Pietro holding her gun in his hand. She crawled over to him and cradled his head in her hands.

"Pietro…" she started, but found a lump in her throat stopped her from speaking further.

Pietro seemed to realise what she was trying to communicate to her, and nodded. "It's alright Kitty. Just hold my hand," she nodded, tears streaming down her face. "Kitty," Pietro's voice was growing weaker by the second, so Kitty had to lean close to his face to hear him. "I always…" Pietro gasped and fell silent, his hand going limp in Kitty's. Kitty buried her head in her hands and cried for what seemed like an eternity, before she looked up and saw her gun on the floor, gleaming in the kitchen lights. She crawled over to it, and cradled it in her hands, looking at it thoughtfully.

Lance was nearly at Kitty's apartment when he heard a single gunshot. Upon hearing it he sprinted up the remaining stairs, closely followed by Sam and Forge, and charged into the apartment. What he saw in there felt like a physical blow to his heart. A few metres away from the door, Pietro was slumped on the floor with a fatal bullet wound in his chest; Kitty lay next to him with a hole in the back of her head and a pistol nearby. Some metres away, lay another dead body whose head had been torn apart by a bullet. As Forge and Sam joined him, he felt tears running down his face, but he made no effort to hide them. Forge went over and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, while Sam bowed his head in respect of the dead. For a long time theroom was silent, save for the distant sound of a bustling London street, floating in through the open window.


End file.
